Review: ANASTASIA Dazzles Bucks County Holiday Audiences

In or around 2017 I was asked to the Broadhurst Theater to see a new Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical. It was pretty. There were dancers in white in a palatial ballroom, and the visual projection work was amazing. On the other hand, it's one of the few shows that had me out the door at intermission. The reviews for ANASTASIA were a mixed bag of "it's gorgeous," "the music was beautiful," "are you sure this was based on the movie?" and alas, the killer that got me, "but when will the show start?"

Time, it must be said, has been kind to this show. Too real, too gritty, not sweet enough, to be a Disney musical, one can only bless their luck that it isn't, that it's a fantasy loudly and clearly based on real life and the dreams of millions - did the Grand Duchess Anastasia survive her family's execution in Saint Petersburg? Taste has shifted, perhaps, ever so slightly as well, and Bucks County Playhouse is most fortuitous not to be the Broadhurst, a Broadway theater nearly as physically uncomfortable as any on the West End of London. 

it's also entirely possible that peripatetic director Eric Rosen has, even without a villain of the acting stature of Ramin Karimloo, delivered the Philadelphia area a superior production. This is the second show I've seen at a Pennsylvania regional theater in a month that has been an improvement over the Broadway production at a far better price point for the audience (a nod to the Fulton, in Lancaster, for their production of Disney's FROZEN, which I reviewed for another venue). And in this case, that speaks volumes.

Lyda Jade Harlan is a marvelous call as Anya, the young woman who despite all coaching to be passed off as the adult Anastasia, really just might be the long-missing Grand Duchess, her weak childhood memories sometimes breaking through to ideas that her con-man tutors didn't know... until the moment one of them remembers the same moment.  Mason Reeves as Dmitry and the charmingly hilarious Erik Lochtefeld as Vlad, a long-term con man count, are the team that hopes Anya will make them a fortune, in a delightfully inverted retelling of MY FAIR LADY  Can they turn the young woman who just might be the real Grand Duchess into a superior version of herself?  And might she find herself through the con?

Gleb, the Soviet military commander sent to see that she's never acknowledged as the Grand Duchess, the man whose father definitely killed the rest of her family (and Gleb can't think how papa missed killing her too) is played by Roe Hartrampf as a character far unlike his recent one in BCP's NOISES OFF. Is he falling for Anya, does he just feel sorry for her, or is he simply a different man from his father?  Any and all are possible, and he wears all of them well  The Dowager Empress of All the Russias, a suitably haughty and badly hurt Christine Toy Johnson, is equally effective as a woman who refuses to have her heart broken again by yet another false heir, while still shaken by the things no con man could have told this Anya about their last encounter before the Revolution.

I searched for proof the show was rewritten since I choked on it on Broadway.  No luck.  This is the same show, mysteriously transformed into a lavish confection of elegance, mystery, and occasional great humor (mostly courtesy of the wonderful Lochtefeld and Devon McCleskey) that ushers in a Pennsylvania winter with images of girls in white ball gowns, Swan Lake, vodka, French champagne, and caviar - a far cry from the Russian dreams of THE NUTCRACKER but with perhaps more sophisticated holiday charms. Kudos to Eric Rosen for elevating the potential of this show to its best levels. Far from wanting to leave at the nearest opportunity, I'll cheerfully take another pair of tickets.  

Like champagne and caviar, this production deserves your having a second serving.  This ANASTASIA is a holiday treat worth savoring.  Sure you can drive a truck through the plot holes but listen to "Once Upon a December."  Listen to "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart" and imagine Josephine Baker's heyday. Realize this is not Disney and inhale the amazing delights of princesses who don't live in Cinderella's castle and might never see one again. See Eric Rosen breathe life into this production.  Whatever you do (especially if you're familiar with the Broadway reviews), see it for the holiday.  

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