Timpanogos Community Theater's Anastasia

I have always found the idea that the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov may have escaped the fate suffered by the rest of her family during the Russian Revolution to be incredibly compelling (even though it has now been debunked by DNA evidence) so I am a huge fan of the musical Anastasia. I was able to see the Broadway touring production several years ago so I was very intrigued to see what the Timpanogos Community Theater would do with it last night. I was quite impressed! Young Anastasia (Paisley Shepherd) is given a music box by her grandmother the Dowager Empress (Nicole Tupola) before she leaves Russia to live in Paris. Several years later the Imperial family is arrested and executed by Bolsheviks but there is a rumor in St. Petersburg that Anastasia somehow survived. Two con men named Dmitry (Tanner Tate) and Vlad (William Gardner) want to find someone to impersonate her in order to claim the reward money offered by the Dowager Empress. They find an old music box believed to be owned by the Romanovs and eventually encounter a young woman named Anya (Sierra Livermore) who is suffering from amnesia. As they try to teach her about the Grand Duchess using history books, she recognizes the music box and starts remembering the Imperial family. They escape the clutches of a Bolshevik general named Gleb (Dylan Bradford), who vows to finish the job of executing the Romanovs begun by his father, and eventually arrive in Paris. With the help of Countess Lily (Serene Parker), a lady in waiting, they introduce Anya to the Dowager Empress but is she really Anastasia and does she want the life of a Grand Duchess? The Broadway production is known for the beautiful and elaborate sets and projections that bring St. Petersburg and Paris to life. This show is much more scaled down with simpler set pieces brought on and off stage by the ensemble.  However, the upstage area is dominated by a gilded marble archway from an Imperial ballroom that is covered by white sheets, which are removed one by one as we learn more about Anastasia, and this is very effective at portraying a lost way of life that is rediscovered by Anya. I admit that I really liked this, maybe even more than the Broadway version, because it is less distracting and lets the story shine on its own with a lot more emotion. The staging of the musical numbers is still incredibly dramatic. The red lights in "The Last Dance of the Romanovs" as the Romanov family is captured by the Bolsheviks while waltzing in the Winter Palace are powerful, the ghosts of the Romanovs dancing around Anya in "Once Upon a December" and "A Nightmare" are otherworldly, and the performance of the ballet Swan Lake in "Quartet at the Ballet" as Anya, Dmitry, Vlad, Lily, and the Dowager Empress watch in box seats on each side of the stage is impressive. I also really enjoyed the choreography in "Paris Holds the Key" and "Land of Yesterday" (the Russian dancing is so fun). I've noticed that this community theater is able to attract a lot of unbelievably talented performers that other professional companies would envy and this show is no exception. Livermore is outstanding as Anya and I particularly enjoyed her renditions of "In My Dreams," "Once Upon a December," and "Journey to the Past"  as well as her portrayal of so many different emotions as she transitions from reading about the events in Anastasia's life to remembering them. Everyone else does a great job but Bradford gave me goosebumps, especially in "The Neva Flows" and "Still," because his voice is so beautiful. This is another stellar production from TCT!  It has fewer bells and whistles than the Broadway version but it is all the better for it and I would highly recommend getting a ticket (go here). It runs Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through July 6.