6 days ago
8
Harriet Cunningham
April 11, 2026 — 3:41pm
THEATRE
Anastasia
Sydney Lyric Theatre, April 10
Until July 17
Reviewed by HARRIET CUNNINGHAM
★★★★½
Rags to riches, revolution, lost identity and escape from peril ... The story of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia has it all. The youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Anastasia was rumoured to be the only member of the Romanov royal family to have survived execution by Bolshevik forces in July 1918. The rumours grew into a grand mystery, with at least 10 women coming forward claiming to be the last of the Romanovs.
Anastasia picks up the legend and gives it the Broadway treatment with a great book by author Terrence McNally, a reliable string of showstoppers by the composer of Ragtime, Stephen Flaherty, plus a starry cast, truckloads of costumes, dazzling set pieces and vocal fireworks. Resistance is useless.
The Australian incarnation of this international phenomenon is hard to fault. Georgina Hopson is an ideal Anya, with a voice of immense dynamic and expressive range and a winning stage presence. Robert Tripolino (the lovable rogue Dimitry) and Joshua Robson (dutiful soldier Gleb) compete, dramatically and vocally, for the audience’s heart, with Robson nearly winning it in set piece Still.
Rodney Dobson as Vlad, aka Count Popov, works magic as a character who could clearly upstage the main action at any given moment. This is especially true when paired with his Countess Lily, Rhonda Burchmore, who gleefully hams it up to the max. Finally, there is Nancye Hayes as the Dowager Empress, the gracious lynchpin around whom the story unfolds.
The creative team brings the historical sweep of Anya and Anastasia’s tale to the stage with great ingenuity, shifting us across three decades and hundreds of miles using everything in the showbiz toolbox. Most notable are the projections (video design by Aaron Rhyne, with set design by Alexander Dodge), which appear behind the static, architectural wall of windows, doors and archways.
In conjunction with lighting (Donald Holder) and costumes (Linda Cho) they create instant changes of location, from the streets of St Petersburg to Bolshevik command to Paris – without upstaging the action. That’s except for the getaway scene, where a skeleton train carriage on a revolve is set in motion by rolling landscapes in the background. It’s one of the most successful uses of projections for storytelling that I have seen.
The other element that stands out is the choreography (Peggy Hickey) which, especially in the second act, captures the free-spirited sense of release in post-war Paris. A high-energy ensemble show themselves adept in classical ballet, ballroom dancing and jazz.
Anastasia is a musical of two, distinct parts, and that is part of its appeal: we move from the Disney-esque nostalgia of Old Russia to fiery revolution through to Paris in the 20s, shot through with jazz and flapper dancing. It’s Frozen, Les Mis and Ragtime, all in one. Little wonder it’s hard to resist.
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