More Musical Madness: Anastasia
The world seems to be enthralled with the story of Anastasia Romanov. Well, enthralled with fictional spins on the actual history. There are a ton of stories involving the Romanovs, which I find interesting.
Probably the most well-known Anastasia story is the 1997 movie. According to my mom, I watched this movie a lot when I was little, along with another non-Disney-princess-movie, Thumbelina (which I recently rewatched, and that movie was WEIRD).
Well, actually there are only three main stories that I know involve Anastasia Romanov. Romanov by Nadine Brandes (still need to read it, but the cover is gorgeous!), the aforementioned movie, and a Broadway musical.
A few weeks ago, I wanted to spice up what I was listening to, and then I remembered a musical a friend had recommended to me. So I listened to the Anastasia musical.
Movie Vs. Musical
The musical changed up a few things with the movie, and honestly I really liked those changes. The biggest change was that the (really weird and creepy) villain in the movie was completely taken out and replaced with a Russian guard-general person named Gleb. Gleb basically follows Anya to France and is set out to kill her, but doesn’t. (So we’ve got kind of a Valjean and Javert thing happening)
The cutting of Rasputin is the biggest change, but apart from that, the plot of the musical is pretty much the same as the movie, just with more songs and reaaaalllllyyy pretty costumes.
Pictures from Here
I listened to this musical for about two weeks straight, and added that musical into my plan for Broadway when it reopens. Just… Anastasia isn’t on Broadway anymore. *cries* So yeah, um… don’t add it to any travel plans.
I think the musical version of Anastasia focuses a lot more on finding yourself than the movie. The movie honestly was just a mission to con a grandma with fighting a creepy demon-guy along the way. The musical took aspects of the movie and expanded them into something pretty dang awesome.
My Favorite Songs:
Another reason why I think I liked this musical so much is because there were a lot of songs from the movie in the musical. There were new ones, too, but the old ones were polished up or twisted a bit. It made for a very cool and nostalgic listening experience.
Dancing Songs:
A Rumor in St. Petersburg – One of my favorite songs from the movie, complete with lots of dancing around in the kitchen.
Learn to Do it – Again, a great song from the movie with a few twists, but super fun to dance to.
Once Upon a December – The piano music for this is super fun to play, and I really want to make an Anastasia costume to swirl around in during this song.
Journey to the Past – A pretty iconic song from the movie, so I already had the words burned into my brain for kitchen karaoke.
We’ll Go From There – I didn’t like this one at first, but then it grew on me. The only thing is that you can’t sing it or hum it on your own.
Land of Yesterday – One of my favorite new additions! I always forget how good this song is.
My Favorite Songs to Listen to Just for the Feels
In My Dreams – Again, a new addition that’s pretty fun and a cool backstory song.
The Neva Flows – This song puzzled me, then got stuck in my head for a long time.
Stay, I Pray You – This song actually takes a melody-tune-thing (sorry, music theory makes no sense to me) from Rasputin’s villain song in the movie. But it became so much better, a bittersweet, beautiful song. It’s all about leaving the one place you’ve known forever, something that wasn’t shown in the movie.
Still – This is a great villain song. My only problem with it is that the piano music has a disgusting number of flats in it.
In A Crowd of Thousands – This! This song! Agh! I love it so much!
Quartet at the Ballet – I love how this song threaded in with Swan Lake, it sounded really cool. But also, it was a nice way to see everyone’s motives and desires. And again, I can’t sing it alone because there are too many parts.
Still/The Neva Flows (Reprise)– This song makes me feel like a very powerful and crazy villain. I love it.
So overall, the Anastasia musical was a fun look back into my Anastasia obsession as a little kid. It twisted the story a little, but it focuses more on Anya’s struggle to find herself than in the movie. Go give it a listen. (Also, it’s very clean. Much cleaner than Hamilton, so perfect for kitchen dancing and karaoke)
What is your favorite story about Anastasia Romanov? What is your favorite song from the musical? I hope you all have a great rest of your day!
-Hannah
7 comments
Anastasia is one of my absolute favorite musicals, so I loved this post! And I have to say that my favorite song is Land of Yesterday–so fun to sing!
Land of Yesterday is amazing! It’s so much fun to dance and sing to!
I didn’t know that Anastasia the musical was different than Anastasia the movie. I’m working on a novel inspired by some of the real life Anastasia pretenders, so a lot of it is rooted in the Romanov history (because I’m minorly obsessed with Anastasia thanks to Nadine Brandes. Just a bit.). I’d been interested in the music to Anastasia, but a friend mentioned the demon thing in the movie which turned me away from it. I’ll definitely be looking up the musical, then! Thanks for sharing, this was very interesting!
Ooo! You’re novel sounds so cool! What did you think of Romanov? I’ve read Fawkes, which was awesome but Romanov has unfortunately been on my giant TBR list for too long XD I hope you like the musical!
I adored Romanov! I loved the characters and the plot was super creative. The period in history was very intriguing and she did a nice job adding those touches of history. The prose is beautiful. My single and only complaint was that the magic and the story didn’t seem to mesh as well as they did in Fawkes. Every so often, I’d just feel like they were separate pieces of the puzzle or that I was missing an allegory or something (which it does not seem like I actually was). But that was very slight. I recommend it to anyone and everyone I can.
Also, I listened to about half the musical this morning. I think I’m addicted. XD
Agh! I can’t wait to read it now! I liked the magic system in Fawkes, so seeing how Romanov’s magic system is will be interesting. (Ahh yess! Have fun with that!)
Will do!