OK now I know I am not the only one who screamed with excitement when they announced the broadway production of the Anastasia musical this past spring and watching these clips from the musical has me playing the soundtrack 24/7 (not ashamed to admit I'm currently playing it while I type this article) and walking down memory lane. And it's obvious I'm not alone because Facebook has been blowing up the past few days with people sharing the video clips and commenting how excited they are. To be honest, I think anyone who was a little kid in the 90's fell in love with this musical.
I really think what is so great and what is most memorable about the musical Anastasia is the music. I mean the fact that my friends and I are almost twenty years old and haven't seen the movie in like ten years, but can still remember the lyrics instantly when we hear the music playing is a pretty good sign that they were doing something right.
But one issue I do have with the movie-turned-broadway-musical, and that is the romanticizing of an absolutely tragic event in history.
I've been interested in the Romanov family ever since I watched a PBS documentary with my mom when I was around seven or eight years old and learned what really happened to the actual Anastasia and her family. I remember being horrified when we finished the almost five-hour documentary and crying my eyes out. I had no idea they had been slaughtered by their own country. All I knew about them was what I had seen in the musical I loved as a little girl. I knew they had died because they died in the movie, but I didn't know that it was at the hands of the country they served because they put the blame on Rasputin in the movie.
So as much as I adore the movie, I think it's very misleading for children. It's wrong because of the fact kids don't know the true story behind Anastasia and believe the movie is just that, a movie, and not a real story. The only reason I knew the real story was because I watched that documentary with my mom, and then later on in middle school we studied the Russian Revolution. But think about all the children who didn't see a documentary about the real story and went on thinking it was made up. It's not fair for the family and the story. The movie really should have either stuck to being more historically accurate or stressed the fact that it was a true story just not exactly the story they were telling. Now, granted, yes it is a children's movie, so it can't be graphic, but there are other ways of getting the story across.
All-in-all though, I'm super excited they've finally made a broadway production of this beloved movie but hopefully, this new adaptation will find a way to make children more aware of the true story of what happened to the Romanov family.
By the way, for more information about the musical and to see the trailer for it, click here to visit the official web page!
