Darko Tresnjak Says Casting Complete for ANASTASIA World Premiere; Movie Songs Will Appear!

Heart, don't fail us now! The new ANASTASIA musical is one step closer to its stage debut in Hartford this summer.

In an interview with Connecticut's Journal Inquirer, director Darko Tresnjak (2014 Tony Award winner for A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE) revealed that he and the team had completed casting for the production at Hartford Stage. He also confirmed that there will be 16 new numbers, in addition to six songs from the animated film that inspired the show.

"We're pretty much done with casting," Tresnjak said in the interview. "What's interesting is a generation of young women grew up singing some of those songs. Especially the Academy Award nominated 'Journey to the Past'. So it was a little bit like auditioning for Scarlett O'Hara. They would come in and some of them couldn't control their voices. They were so emotional that they got to sing the song in front of the authors."

"We have the rights to both the animated feature and the original Fox movie with Helen Hayes and Ingrid Bergman," the director confirmed. He added: "Terrence is really writing his own version of the story. We've kept, I think, six songs from the movie, but there are 16 new numbers. We've kept the best parts of the animated movie, but it really is a new musical."

Darko spoke about the process of Lynn Ahrens crafting one of the new songs, saying, "One of the best moments was that I talked about how the show takes place in St. Petersburg and Paris and bridges figure so prominently in the story in those two cities. Lynn was like, 'Hmm,' and the next morning she showed up with a song called 'Crossing a Bridge'."

Speaking about his motivations for tackling ANASTASIA, Tresnjak said, "I'm doing 'Anastasia' because I love it. It's very hard in Broadway. It's very complicated and it's a different set of values."

From the Tony Award-winning writers of the Broadway classic RAGTIME, the new musical ANASTASIA is the romantic and rousing story of one brave young woman attempting to discover the mystery of her past while finding a place for herself in the rapidly changing world of a new century.

ANASTASIA features book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and choreography by Peggy Hickey. The musical runs May 12 - June 12, 2016 at Hartford Stage.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride