Anastasia
Crown Theatre, Burswood
Thursday, March 5 2026
Based on the animated movie, premised on an urban legend, and with a passing acquaintance to some actual Russian history, Anastasia was delightfully entertaining with a powerhouse cast. Opening its season in Perth as the show continues its national tour, this was also a quality evening spent out with the Romanovs, as envisioned by Broadway musical creatives a century and change after Nicholas II abdicated.
A two-song prologue got proceedings underway. Departing St Petersburg for Paris in 1906, the Dowager Empress (Nancye Hayes) gave a music box to six-year-old Anastasia to remember her grandmother by, which seamlessly segued to one final imperial ball for the royal family before the 1917 revolutions.
Fast forward another decade as wartime Petrograd became drab Leningrad, the virtues of Bolshevism extolled by Chekist officer Gleb (Joshua Robson), as the new Soviets around him walked the very fine line of regime-acceptable cynicism. Enter the scene inveterate con-artists Dimitry and Vlad, Robert Tripolino and Rodney Dobson respectively, with Anya (Georgina Hopson) wishing for exit papers, and Act One was set in motion.
Brought together to convince the Dowager Empress of Anastasia’s survival, Dimitry and Vlad spent all winter through to spring training the amnesiac Anya how to embody a Grand Duchess. At the same time, Gleb brought Anya into his office overlooking Nevsky Prospekt to warn her off this imperialist and counter-revolutionary pipe dream.
Travel documents were procured, and a glorious set-piece ensued with Finland Station serving as backdrop – the intelligentsia and others being exiled at this point came together as one to mourn the motherland they were being forced to leave. This was followed by an inventive staging of a train carriage travelled through the taiga, which easily recalled Doctor Zhivago, another last-century Russian epic.
Hopson as Anya was a revelation, the clear star of the piece in near every way. With a singing voice that drew all ears and a stage presence that was simply magnetic, Hopson embodied all aspects of the surprisingly complex character – from tragedy and comedy, through amnesiac prole all the way to ball-gowned elite.
Robson was also an extremely strong performer, with a frankly astonishing range in service of Gleb’s repertoire of song, highlighted especially with The Neva Flows and Still. The gently optimistic, often cheerful, always reliable role of the piece was taken on by Dobson as Vlad. As the other characters bounced from one big emotion to the next, it was delightful to watch Dobson be so self-assured in a role that gave easily of himself when the moments required.
Paris beckoned, and the inimitable Rhonda Burchmore almost ran away with Act Two all by herself as Countess Lily, Vlad’s former paramour and chief lady-in-waiting to the Dowager Empress. High kicking her way at the Neva Club through Land of Yesterday and rekindling the flame with Vlad through The Countess and the Common Man, Burchmore was near enough a force of nature in her role, though the script deftly brought Anya back to the fore when necessary.
Themes and songs echoed throughout the performance, mixed and matched to different situations. The Neva Flows, delivered as a heartfelt ballad by Gleb to Anya about his near overwhelming sense of duty, became a sarcastic joke to a Leningrad street gang the very next scene. The Rumors Never End was used both by the Soviet secret police and the Parisian media, whilst Once Upon a December served as close to a leitmotif as any song tonight, a connection to a lost family and time for the surviving Romanovs.
The costume department shone in this performance, with some stunning pieces created and on display. Beyond the expected finery of the Romanov court or Parisian ballet – Swan Lake, but of course – the entire company was provided strong, consistent styling, whether it were the staid, solid, and practical on the Soviet side, or the bright and sunny vision of France Golden Age Hollywood had of the country. All looks given on-stage tonight were a visual feast.
With the romance of almost literally every fairy-tale, the epic scale of a David Lean movies, and some distinct shades of class commentary, Anastasia was a wonderful throwback to an era often forgotten. A fun and frothy blast of an evening, easily accessible to all ages, this is a quality production worthy of all the plaudits it has received.