Anastasia had a difficult task when adapting from screen to stage. Unlike many other musicals I’ve discussed on this blog, the source material for Anastasia was already a musical. In theory, this means adapting it to stage should be simple. Add a few more songs here, flesh out a character there, bada bing, bada boom you’re ready for the stage.
Right?
Wrong.
(At least in this case.)
There’s one catch for Anastasia: while the musical is based mostly on the movie, the movie is inspired by the life of a real historical figure, albeit extremely loosely. The musical attempts to not only adapt the movie, but also in doing so create a version of the story that’s more accurate to the actual historical events.
The Villain
A major way the musical does this is through the changing of the villain. From what I can tell, there are differing opinions on whether fans of the movie and show prefer the original or the new.
The movie has unforgettable Rasputin as a villain. But unforgettable though he might be, his role in the story is distinctly more magical than historical. Even putting aside the historical inaccuracies, he cannot transfer to the musical without magic being present as well. To try would change Rasputin so much as to make it a wasted effort including the same character.
It is easier for an animated movie to include just a little bit of magic than it is for a musical. If a stage musical wants to include magic, then it’s best to go all out. Instead, Anastasia chose to cut the magic to focus on the historical, and for that, replaced Rasputin with Soviet officer Gleb.
Aside from the obvious differences, Gleb is an altogether different kind of character than Rasputin. The animated Rasputin is fantastical, cartoonish in his evilness and utterly relentless. Gleb is more human, genuinely believing in the creed of the Soviet Union but his earliest actions in the show are those of kindness. He’s more of a multidimensional character than Rasputin. He also represents the very real force of the Soviets behind him, who would certainly have been the greatest threat to Anastasia if she had survived in real world history.
The Opening
The opening scenes of the musical take into account the newer historical focus. The very first scene is of Anastasia being gifted her important music box by her grandmother. This is the same in movie and musical. Afterward, musical skips ahead several years. It then shows, in a rather more artistic portrayal, the effects of the revolution on the Romanov family until their deaths.
Much of it is more implied than literally portrayed onstage. (As can be expected when dealing with such a dark topic as the murder of a family.) But later on, through Anya’s early number “In My Dreams” we get a glimpse of what she went through. Anya describes waking up amnesiac in a hospital under the care of nurses, who she specifically recalls giving her a hat. This implies that she was shot with the rest of her family, only afterward someone helped sneak her into a hospital. This, while not in line with history exact, is closer to the actual events than the movie that had Anya separated from her family at a much earlier age.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are a lot of changed aspects of this adaptation that I didn’t touch on. But the most meaningful and complicated all stem from the choice to make the musical as accurate an adaptation of both the movie and real history as possible. As a history lover myself, I can’t help but love it for that.
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