Photo by Matthew Murphy

Anastasia's recipe for success has a few key ingredients, but perhaps the most prominent ones are the members of the show's dream creative team. With the Tony Award-winning writers of Ragtime re-united, what could possibly go wrong? Terrence McNally writes the book, whilst Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens have rejuvenated their beloved songs from the animated movie and added to them in abundance for this re-telling. At the End of Act I, the Oscar-nominated song "Journey to the Past" delivers Miss Altomare the opportunity for her shining Broadway moment (which she stirringly takes full advantage of) and also gives the ardent Anastasia fans exactly what they paid to see. And "Once Upon a December" (a Golden Globe-nominated song in its own right) is perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful musical number I have seen on the Broadway stage in a long time. Aaron Rhyne's projection design, which engulfs the stage and the sides of the auditorium with the waltzing ghosts of the past, is simply stunning. It is a moment that overwhelms, when all the factors of theatre-making (music, choreography, lighting, costume etc.) come together so beautifully and so perfectly, that a memory is created to last a lifetime.

Indeed, Mr. Rhyne's projections - coupled with Alexander Dodge's simple and incredibly effective scenic design - deserve to be commended for offering a truly unique experience for the fervent Broadway theatregoer. There is simply nothing of the same scale on the Broadway stage at the moment. Whether they are glistening with a starry view over Paris, burning red with the bloodshed of the Bolshevik revolution or mapping out our protagonists' journey from Russia to France, the visuals are stunning.

For anyone unfamiliar with the old myth of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, it was rumored for many decades that one of Tsar Nicholas II's daughters somehow managed to escape the massacre of his entire Romanov family during the Russian Revolution. This daughter - Anastasia - becomes a great mystery and a symbol of hope for the Russian population who reject the new regime. Her grandmother - the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna - longs for her granddaughter to be alive and issues a hefty reward for anyone who finds her. The real Anastasia - now suffering from amnesia and renamed Anya - must take the "journey to the past" and re-discover who she truly is...

Read our exclusive interview with Christy Altmoare HERE!

Unfortunately, in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that Anastasia did in fact perish with the rest of her family, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story?! This musical is a modern fairy tale, not a historical documentary, and makes no apologies for it. Goodness knows that we need a little escapism and hope nowadays.

I have a feeling that, thanks to this Broadway musical and its hordes of young female fans, Anastasia will live on for many years to come.

Click here for tickets to Anastasia for performances through to January 7, 2018 at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre.

- by Tom Millward