Sweeping musical ‘Anastasia’ takes the stage Friday
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The Maui Academy of Performing Arts will open its new season Friday at the Naylor Theatre with "Anastasia: The Musical," which Variety praised as "an irresistible and sumptuous fairy tale" when it debuted on Broadway.
"We wanted to open the season with something grand, something that would really wow Maui audiences," said director Carolyn Wright. "We wanted to start with this big, sweeping kind of musical."
Inspired by the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the musical follows a young woman's journey from the twilight of the Russian Empire in Saint Petersburg to the excitement of 1920s Paris in search of her past and her identity.
"At the beginning of the show, the revolution has already happened, and life is pretty miserable there," Wright explained. "We meet Anya, and she's the street sweeper on the streets of Saint Petersburg."
With music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and the book by Terrence McNally, the musical is based on the 1997 animated film of the same name featuring the voices of Meg Ryan and John Cusack.
"It's almost cinematic in its scale," said Wright. "We've taken this piece that's cinematic, in this really intimate setting, and wanted to continue to push the boundaries of what we can do in this space."
To conjure the early 20th-century world of Russia and France, the production team adopted an innovative approach. "We wanted to push the envelope in terms of what we can do scenery-wise for something that the Maui audiences haven't seen before," said Wright. "Because the scale of the musical is so big, we've built these gigantic swan-feather-shaped pieces. It's actually a cyclorama, a huge 18-foot-tall, 50-foot-wide projection screen, with four projectors."
The projections have been created by MAPA's scenic designer Jamie Tate and Marcus Kunzel, who works for the Maui Arts & Cultural Center and Fuzz Box Productions.
The Maui cast includes Lily Werner as Anya, Shane Borge as con man Dmitry, Thalyn Nikolau as former Imperial Court member Vlad Popov, Kiegan Otterson as Bolshevik general Gleb Vaganov, Amber Snow as Countess Lily, Peggy Harmon as The Dowager Empress, Nicole Heinlein as Tsarina Alexandra, and Merritt James as Tsar Nicholas II.
Featuring more than 30 songs, the show includes an extract from the "Swan Lake" ballet. "We have some of our top ballerinas actually performing 'Swan Lake' on pointe in the middle of the show," said Wright.
"Anastasia" explores a determined girl's journey to find home, love and family as she discovers who she was and embraces who she is meant to be.
"The theme of the play is this idea about identity and belonging and where is home for us?," said Wright. "I think people are going to be quite taken by the emotional journey, and we feel what the characters are feeling. It's everything from joy to despair and hope, and as she's struggling with trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs, I think we all start to search within ourselves about who are we? Where do we belong?"
Due to mature themes, the show is recommended for ages 10 and up. "There are some scary moments, and we don't want people to think that this is like the animated film 'Anastasia' that was geared for little kids," she said.
Bringing such an ambitious project to the Maui stage, Wright said, "We really wanted to pick something that was going to showcase the breadth of talent that we have on Maui, both on stage and off. So technically, getting to do something that is as visually spectacular as this showcases some talents of our offstage people. Then on stage, we have some of Maui's best actors and singers, and, of course, the ballerinas. I think audiences are going to be pretty impressed, and we're really excited to share the Naylor Theatre in a whole new way that Maui audiences haven't seen before."
"Anastasia: The Musical" runs from Friday to Sept. 13 at the Naylor Theatre. Shows on Fridays and Saturdays will start at 7:30 p.m. and shows on Sundays begin at 3 p.m. Tickets range from $45 to $75 at mauiacademy.org.