Journey To The Past: Setting Anastasia On Broadway

It’s a rumor, a legend, a mystery—the biggest con in history.

Written by Terrence McNally with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Anastasia explores the wishful theory that one daughter survived the mass murder of the Romanov family after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918. Inspired by the 1956 film and 1997 animated film, the musical focuses on Anya, an amnesiac orphan, who falls in with two con men. As they train her to impersonate the youngest daughter of the deceased tsar, they begin to wonder if she may actually be the Grand Duchess Anastasia herself.

Directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak, the musical premiered at Hartford Stage in 2016 and is currently running on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. The production received 13 Outer Critics Circle Awards nominations—the most for any musical this year—as well as nine Drama Desk Award nominations and two Tony Award nominations. Recognized for magical designs, the creative team includes Alexander Dodge, sets; Aaron Rhyne, projections; Donald Holder, lights; Peter Hylenski, sound; and Linda Cho, costumes.

 

Once Upon A December

“It began as kind of a dream,” says Dodge, who originally envisioned a crystalline, ghost palace, backlit and floating, always present, but ever just out of reach. However, with so many scene locations—over 30, quips Dodge—across multiple years, a media wall takes the place of a palace, and projections provide a cinematic nod to the films, particularly the animated version. “We didn’t want to shy away from the magic and fun of the children’s adventure story,” explains Dodge, who wove a dreamlike, cloudlike quality throughout the set, from the texture of the walls to the surface of the set pieces. The scenic designer was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.

Set in St. Petersburg/Leningrad during both tsarist and communist Russia in Act One and Paris in the throes of années folles, or France’s “crazy years,” in Act Two, the production required substantial research to accurately portray the history of these two world-renowned cities. In his research, Dodge found that Imperial Russian architecture drew from that of France. So while colors and details vary, certain set pieces appear throughout the musical, providing a consistent thread between the acts that are tied together in the middle by a train sequence from Russia to France.

Continuing the cinematic theme, Dodge explains, “We had this idea of cutting to close-up shots of the actors, zooming in on them as a camera flies around like a helicopter.” A simple, metal framework of a car that revolves to focus on an actor in a window, or passengers crowded on benches, conveys the cinematic sequence, while projections of moving landscape allude to a speeding train.

With more than 30 scene changes, the flexibility and speed of the turntables play a crucial role in time. “In nine seconds, you do a full revolve on both of those sides and the center, and you’ve completely swapped out what was there before,” states Dodge, “and so it has a lovely flow.” In the last moment of the show, as the cast rotates on stage, Dodge is reminded of Anastasia’s music box and the figures that dance against an enameled backdrop. Show Motion in Connecticut built and painted the Broadway set, collaborating with painters from Joseph Forbes’ Scenic Art Studios.

Stay tuned for more on the projection, lighting, sound, and costume design.

For more, read the June 2017 issue of Live Design.