McNally, Ahrens & Flaherty's ANASTASIA Musical Gets Developmental Lab in NYC, August 2014

According to an Equity casting notice, a developmental lab of the new musical version of ANASTASIA -- featuring book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens -- will be held at Pearl Studios this August. Darko Tresnjak is set to direct the project from Stage Entertainment USA, along with musical director Tom Murray.

BWW will keep you updated as we learn more! We revealed back in 2012 that there would be a 29-hour reading of ANASTASIA - A New Musical, based on the hit 1997 animated motion picture from Fox Animation Studios. The musical was set to feature the five songs from the film, along with fifteen new songs written for the stage.

The story is inspired by an urban legend which claimed that Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, in fact survived the execution of her family.

The film featured the voices of Angela Lansbury, Meg Ryan, John Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, and Bernadette Peters. It premiered in the United States on November 21, 1997, and was nominated for two Oscars for Best Original Song ("Journey to the Past") and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.

Flaherty and Ahrens previously collaborated with McNally on Ragtime, which received a Broadway revival in 2009.

Ahrens won Broadway's Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Ragtime. Her musicals include Once on This Island, Seussical, My Favorite Year, A Christmas Carol, Lucky Stiff, Dessa Rose, A Man of No Importance, The Glorious Ones, and the current world premiere of Rocky. Film and television: Anastasia, Camp, Schoolhouse Rock and many others. Honors include Tony, Emmy, and Olivier Awards and multiple nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Grammy Awards.

Flaherty composed the musicals Ragtime, Seussical, Once on This Island, My Favorite Year, A Man of No Importance, The Glorious Ones, Dessa Rose, Lucky Stiff, Loving Repeating and others. Films include Anastasia and others. His latest musical, Rocky, written with longtime collaborator Lynn Ahrens and Thomas Meehan, recently premiered on Broadway. Awards include the Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and multiple nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Grammy.

Four-time Tony-winning playwright McNally's new play MOTHERS AND SONS is currently running on Broadway, starring Tyne Daly. His other works for Broadway include Bad Habits; The Ritz; The Rink; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Master Class; Ragtime; The Full Monty; and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

Picture via Facebook.