Anastasia Is My Middle Name

thanks a bunch to @sureblamethebat for calling me and whole bunch of others tf out

I read the English translation a while ago and I finally found a radio recording of the play.

I find it so fascinating that Anna knew about the con and that she wasn’t the real Anastasia right from the start. There really isn’t any romance in it, and the Dowager Empress knows the truth. Even Anna admits she was a factory worker, which the real Anna Anderson was. I feel like Anna deciding to leave in order to create her own life was so powerful and gave her character a lot of agency.

I hope this play gets revived one day, so I can see it on stage’

Constance Towers as Anya, Michael Kermoyan as Prince Bounine, and Lillian Gish as the Dowager Empress.

An old article from the New York Times about the Anya operetta. This was adapted from the original “Anastasia” play. It’s the first time Anna’s name was changed to Anya and it’s the first time that this story was put to music. The album is on YouTube and is so beautiful.

This production played in the Ziegfeld Theatre on the 29th of November, 1965. Sadly, the operetta only had 16 performances before closing. It was directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Hanya Holm.

I wonder if the animated film was inspired by this operetta because the name Anya remained and they turned to the story into a family friendly animated musical. Which would later be adapted onto Broadway.

Source: Taubman, Howard. “Theater: “Anya,” a Sentimental Musical; Show at Ziegfeld Is Based on “Anastasia.”” New York Times, 30 Nov. 1965, www.nytimes.com/1965/11/30/archives/theater-anya-a-sentimental-musical-show-at-ziegfeld-is-based-on.html

An original news article from the New York Times about the Anastasia play in 1954 at the Lyceum Theatre. The photos are of Viveca Lindfors as Anna and Eugenie Leontovich as the Dowager Empress in Adaptation of the Marcelle Maurette play, with English translations by Guy Bolton.

This is where it all began: a play, the old Hollywood film, an operetta, the animated movie, and then a Broadway musical!

Source: Atkinson, Brooks. “Adaptation from French Opens at the Lyceum.” New York Times, 30 Dec. 1954, www.nytimes.com/1954/12/30/archives/theatre-the-mystery-of-anastasia-adaptation-from-french-opens-at.html