DVDizzy Forum

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.

2Disney4Ever wrote:It's nice to see that the great Don Bluth is getting some more recognition for his 2D work again. Ever since Titan A.E. it seems like he's been pretty non-existent in this day and age of nonstop computer animation.

I wonder if Angela Lansbury will be in it or not? I'm not the biggest fan of Anastasia although the music is nice (a few of the songs, anyway). I'm more of a Lansbury fan really.

According to an Equity casting notice, a staged reading of the new musical version of ANASTASIA -- featuring book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens -- will be held on June 12, 2015. Tony winner Darko Tresnjak is set to direct the project, along with musical director Tom Murray.

Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, the Tony Award winner for Best Director of a Musical for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, will anchor Hartford Stage's 2015-16 season from May 12-June 5, 2016, with the world premiere of a new musical, Anastasia. Directed by Tresnjak next spring, Anastasia reunites the Tony Award-winning writers of the Broadway classic Ragtime: book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. The new musical Anastasia is inspired by the 1956 and 1997 Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.

Six songs from the 1997 version, including Oscar-nominated “Journey to the Past,” will be used in the stage musical alongside new material from Ahrens and Flaherty.

"This is an epic musical with a cast of 21 and I'm thrilled," says Tresnjak. "People in the musical theater [industry] now know that they can have a work lovingly nurtured here, just as we did for 'Gentleman's Guide.' "

The show will include some songs from the 1997 animated film — including the Oscar-nominated "Journey to the Past" — as well as new tunes —but it will not be kid-centric, according to David Henderson, director of marketing at the theater.

A workshop of the musical was held last summer in New York and another private one is planned for the first two weeks of June. Stage Entertainment USA is involved as commercial partners in that workshop as well as the Hartford production. No casting has been announced.

This week [Terrence] McNally was at an invitation-only workshop for “Anastasia,” which he’s written with Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who scored the 1997 animated movie the musical is based on. Darko Tresnjak, who staged last year’s Tony winning “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” is directing. Sources who attended the workshop say he’s made the show tougher and more adult than the kiddie film. Ahrens and Flaherty have supplemented their film score with several new and, I’m told, lilting songs. Elena Shaddow (“The Bridges of Madison County”) played Anna in the workshop. Ramin Karimloo, Tony-nominated for “Les Misérables,” played Dimitri, a con man who falls in love with Anastasia.

Stage Entertainment, which produced “Rocky” last season, is the money behind “Anastasia.” The show opens at the Hartford Stage, where Tresnjak is artistic director, in the fall. Bill Taylor, the head of Stage Entertainment, is looking for a Broadway theater for spring. Attending the workshop were reps from the big three theater owners — Shubert, Nederlander, Jujamcyn — who, according to my spies, seemed impressed.

Synopsis wrote:From Darko Tresnjak—2014 Tony Award winner for Best Director of a Musical for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder—and 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. With a rich and sweeping musical score that evokes the opulence of Russian aristocracy and the energy of Paris street life, Anastasia is the ultimate journey of a woman caught between the pull of the past and the promise of the future.

Q: What’s in-store for 2016?

Van Dean: Many more cast recordings, a production of Anastasia the Musical, an Off-Broadway production that I will be announcing shortly and more albums in our ‘Live at 54 BELOW’ series.