Bay City Players - April/May 2026
About the Show
From Tony winners Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, creators of such Broadway classics as Ragtime and Once On This Island, this dazzling show transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her, Anya enlists the aid of a dashing con man and a lovable ex-aristocrat. Together, they embark on an epic adventure to help her find home, love and family.
-From Concord Theatricals
Integration of History
Anastasia is a ghost story. The characters are haunted by fathers, by countries, by cultures. The past comes crashing into their present like a ghost terrorizing its home long after the people in it died. Russia is haunted by the legacy of the Romanovs, haunted by the Bolsheviks, and haunted by what could have been. The script says it best. As the characters find their happy ending, the show remains firm in its position that this story is ambiguously dreamlike.
“They are the stuff of dreams. They are all of us.”
This musical takes the very real history that haunts Russia and turns it into a dream, a hope that maybe things could have a happy ending. It twists facts into fictional narrative.
This dramaturgical document will provide you with information about the history behind this story. The goal is that we will be able to mix elements of historical with fantastical. Just because this story is fiction doesn’t mean the history isn’t important; the history is the entire reason why we would want to write a new ending to the story.
Direction and Themes
The Winter Palace, the home of the Romanovs in St. Petersburg, was gutted after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. And yet, while items were looted and destroyed, the Winter Palace’s structure remained, as did all of the other Romanov palaces. The palaces were turned to historical sites and museums, husks of their former glory.
This ghostly image of a palace gutted but otherwise preserved in time. It fits with many of the ghostly themes of this show. The visions of an incomplete past. Ghosts dancing across memories. The sins of the father haunting the son and daughter. Haunting. Ghosts. Yearning. This is the core of Anastasia. I want this production to be haunting, but not in a horrific way. I want it to haunt in a nostalgic way; there is a yearning for something lost. The Romanovs and Bolsheviks haunt this show.