Anastasia: The movie, the musical, the history

Anastasia, the new musical, took years off my life.
15:15 : Pickup point after disclaimer
Credits:
Script, research, graphics: Swiftstart
Video and Sound work and editing: Foxchain
Sprite Work: Swiftstart (Sketches), Foxchain (Rendering)
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Anastasia in any shape and form

[@ceres090]

What bothers me the most about the musical is that it has the bones of a story I'd really like to see: The story of three young people, coming of age during a hectic regime change. One is fervently old-regime and another is fervently new-regime. Enter our audience surrogate who has a tenuous relationship with the world around her due to past trauma that has robbed her of her memory. She must navigate this world with the other two as her guides, showing her all the good and bad of their beliefs. Ultimately, the young woman leaves both men and their ideologies behind, deciding to live with an elderly woman who has lost her whole family to the conflict. Whether they are actually related is left vague, but the two decide it doesn't matter, as they give each other the connection and care they need in this harsh world. The biggest crime of the musical is that it doesn't give us the bombastic fairy tale of the movie, or the hard hitting contemplations of growing up during a time of conflict. It's just this half-assed cash grab about a knockoff Disney princess who may actually be crazy.

[@qt.Miss_Rose]

Anastasia wasn't the only child who died, her sisters Olga, Tatiana,Maria and Alexei were also killed with the family

[@qt.Miss_Rose]

she isn't a Princess, she is a Grand Duchess since they are different titles

[@Swiftstart]

I confess you have me a little confused; I never say they didn’t die? In fact in the second paragraph of my introduction I refer to the deaths of the entire Romanov family. And then again still in the intro when I refer to the finding of the mass grave. And in the actual history section I pretty explicitly cover their deaths in great detail. This video does focus on Anastasia as she is the most famous of the siblings and is the title character of the movie adaptation as well.

[@Swiftstart]

So this one’s a little complicated. Like already her title is a translation from Russian into the closest English equivalent. I do refer to the real Anastasia as the grand duchess Anastasia But in the movie version and in most reports about the rumors of her survival she is called princess which is also a little less of a mouthful And then Technically a grand duchess is a princess. It’s one of those “all grand duchesses are princesses but not all princesses are grand duchesses” situations. Shes ranked higher than your standard princess, but she is still technically a princess. And so it’s fair to use both terms when referring to her.

[@changingpeopleslivesmoon2993]

And the only one in her family to survive is the family dog

[@CrystalGoddess90]

​@@qt.Miss_RoseThey were imperial princesses. Grand duchess was a title that the rest of Europe came up with.

[@anastasiafan]

This is such a well-written and thought-out video. You did a lot of fantastic research for it! Great job!! The animated movie, while fun to look at with good songs, always left a bad taste in my mouth. Like you, I didn’t see it until I was young. I’ve never had a nostalgic connection, but I have been studying the history of the Romanovs since I fell in love with the stage show. (Although my favorite version was the original 1952 French from where all of these adaptations came from and there was no romance in it). I’m going to respectfully play devil’s advocate a bit. I hope that’s okay. Also, my apologies, this will be long. Yes, I know it’s flawed, but I can’t help but lobe it. The musical isn’t a straight adaptation of the 1997 film. It’s a combination of aspects of the 97 animated film and the 56 film. The scene on the train where Anya tells someone not to smoke and the longer reunion scene with the Dowager Empress are directly from the 56 film. Anna was a waif in the 56 film. I think it depends on the version of the musical you watch and the actor, but Christy Altomore (OBC Anya) was the best portrayal. If you watch the Hartford off-Broadway tryouts, she is a LOT more feisty and confrontational towards Gleb. The script was stronger there, but Broadway had the stronger music. Anya didn’t collapse during the confrontation with Gleb, she stayed standing tall and literally screamed at him (which I liked better than her falling). Most of the new songs I loved. Anya and Dimitri still butt heads there, but what I preferred about the Hartford production specifically was that there were quieter moments where they had conversations about their pasts and hopes, and desires. I understood why they fell in love, I never got why they liked each other in the animated movie. They also showed how more openly manipulative Vlad and Dimitri were, which tied into Lily’s character. I do agree with you about the music box and I wish they would’ve based Dimitri on the kitchen boy that was in Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg. That would’ve made more historical sense. But their romance is still very cute. I’m not a fan of the enemies-to-lover trope, so that’s probably why I prefer this. I never liked Rasputin as a villain, and I thought Gleb was so interesting as a character. Wish they went more into depth with him. In the New Flows, “And I was no longer a boy,” he wasn’t literally a child when that happened. He’s an adult along with Anya. So he would’ve been in his early 20s when the murders happened. It was more of an allegorical line. And also historically accurate because lots of people lived in Ekaterinburg where the Romanovs were held and some executioners were sent outside to see if people were coming out when the Romanovs were screaming. Stay, I Pray You, I associate with more of an immigration song rather than a homesick one since they didn’t leave Russia. They are forced to flee the home they love because they cannot survive there. I also think that the ending was anti-climactic on purpose. If it was a public spectacle, it would’ve been front-page news and Anya wouldn’t have been able to disappear with Dimitri. In the finale when they say “she was a dream…” they are referring to Anastasia surviving a dream. It also ties into the historical-fiction aspect or else there would be no “myth” in that universe. I don’t think the musical destroyed the old songs. Music is generally slowed down for stage adaptations, especially ones with lots of blocking and choreography. I also think In My Dreams worked better as her I Want song because it stabbed her dreams of finding out who she is, which will lead to her family, her lost memories, and PTSD which is shown many times in the show. That was a nice realistic addition. Journey To The Past works best as Act 1 closer because Anya has already gone on this journey and it establishes how she’s still frightened of what might happen but continues to move forward and be hopeful despite all she’s been into. I have no idea how the diamond survived since it was HIGHLY ILLEGAL for anyone to own diamonds or any jewels in Soviet Russia, but it was a nice historical easter egg for the jewels sewn in the Grand Duchess’s clothes and it somewhat explained how they could pay for things in Paris. Also, the blue ballet dress was historically inaccurate to 1920s fashion in the animated movie too and I loved the ballet scene. I got to see the show live, and the screens are much better in person than any bootleg captures, just like with costuming. Dimitri is the only character who wears red in the beginning which helps him stand out and Vlad is the only one who wears that type of head covering. They are subtle costume details that can’t be captured on a bootleg and everyone in Russia was poor. So they made them stand out in more subtle ways. I hated the red dress at the end. It was too Disney Princess-y. If they wanted to make a red dress, fine, but make it more like the Grand Duchess’s costumes in the beginning. More historically accurate for that time period. I also liked Anya’s street sweeper frock and skirt because that’s exactly what the real Anastasia used to wear. All of that being said, I think that the show struggles with its own identity crisis. It doesn’t know if it wants to be a fairy tale or a grounded historical fiction musical I wish it went all the way with criticizing the Romanovs, aristocracy, AND the Bolsheviks. It did a little bit of that in the off-Broadway version but was cut for some reason. I think some of Dimitri’s songs should’ve been cut. This show would’ve benefited from being allowed to go darker and to focus on exploring the good and the bad the Bolsheviks and Romanovs did with these 4 characters. Anya, Vlad, Dimitri, and Gleb. Such a missed opportunity. Deputy Commissioner Gleb Vaganov was literally given the last name of one of the Romanov murders - Stepan Vaganov. I absolutely agree with some of your points. It’s a little frustrating because this telling of the story has the potential to be so much more dark and nuanced. But it’s like the creators were afraid to go that far. Die-hard fans of the animated movie hated the show just because there was no Rasputin or Bartok or yellow dress during Once Upon A December. Once again, I really liked your video and I hope all of this is okay. I know you don't like the show, I just wanted to respectfully explain my perspective and why I enjoy it more than the animated movie.

[@Swiftstart]

Wow! Thank you so much for such a thorough and well thought out comment! Sorry for the delay in replying, I’ve been busy with work. I love hearing your take on the stage play; it really gives it a whole other perspective. And I love hearing that sort of thing. And don’t worry about liking objectively flawed media; Tron is one of my all time favorite movies, so you're in safe company here. From your description alone I definitely want to find the Hartford version. I honestly assumed it was more or less the same but with less of a budget. The show truly has a lot of missed potential- I agree completely that had they been less cautious, they could have made a more nuanced piece. Thank you so much for this wonderful response!

[@anastasiafan]

@@Swiftstart Thank you for the response!! The Hartford version is on KZbin it's almost the same as Broadway (still has the screens and the same story) and the music is stronger in the Broadway show, but I feel like it has a little bit better character moments. But the Hartford version of Paris Holds the Key is more like in the animated film with the references. The ballet dress is pink in that one instead of blue (I think it's a reference to the 56 film, but that one was white) but Anya wears a pink dress earlier and young Anastasia wears a pink hair ribbon in the opening, so she has a color. Here's the link if you're interested. :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/aHK0p6eohdRpm8ksi=9ClUTJMLDDj4zR2g The musical is so fascinating, I'm a writer, so I've been working on a script of how I'd fix all the musical's story problems and it's a lot of fun. Even edited a trailer for it lol.

[@ceres090]

I can't wait for the rest of this series.

[@Swiftstart]

thank you so much! I am hard at work on the script for the next one- probably will be a while because of the sheer amount of research but I'm excited!

[@ceres090]

How is the like ratio so low? This video is amazing!

[@elius1548]

This movie has one of the best songs of a musical movie, some of the most gorgeous visuals in any movie, and one of the worst plots I’ve ever witnessed

[@Swiftstart]

That sums it up perfectly!

[@justanotherfangirlontheint4084]

I really like the musical (although I don't like Gleb either), on it's own I think it's a good show. It was also just really fun to be in, so I'm very much biased.

[@anoddrayoflight2304]

omg this video is so interesting, I just learned so much on anastasia I never knew and somehow my brain managed to watch the whole thing no problem (tiktok format is killing my concentration) anyway keep up the good work :D

[@Swiftstart]

That's so awesome to hear! Educational fun is my favorite thing. Enjoy the newfound knowledge!

[@Swiftstart]

​@caitlyncarvalho7637 From what I was reading/my understanding was that the 1956 version was explicitly inspired by Anna Anderson but for the 1997 movie the allusions were toned down and generalized. Admittedly I haven't seen the 1956 so i wouldn't be able to say for sure/make the comparisons between the two versions. If I had all the time in the world I'd look into it further. Without a doubt however Anna planted the first seed that would become the later story.

[@anastasiafan]

@@Swiftstart the 1956 movie was very good. It even starts with a prologue of we don't know if Anna was Anastasia. They probably named her Anna in the film because of Anna Anderson. I wonder if they named the character Anya in the 97 movie based on the 1960s operetta "Anya" or because the same sounded more Russian. Anya is not a nickname for Anastasia. The real Grand Duchess's nicknames were Nastya, Malenkaya (which means little one), and Shvybzik (which means little mischief).

[@roarkthehalf-orc6598]

Oh my goodness I hated the musical too. When you make me prefer the version with the bouncing pink bugs you done mucked up. I remember dreading every moment especially since I'm tall and got a cramped seat so this musical stands out to me lol

[@Swiftstart]

Right????? The moment I long for singing bugs you go to musical jail