Customer Reviews

ANYA (1965 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently found this CD for a reasonable price. It stands up to the best of the Robert Wright/George Forest scores, as one would expect.

This Album on CD did not get my five stars for one reason. As a limited edition CD, I expected more from the liner notes. The liner notes deal mainly with the history of Wright/Forest colaborations, and a list of every film, stage and TV version of the Anastasia story ever produced,including Anya by every regional theater group.

Having never seen the Broadway production or any other production of Anya, and even though I know the story well, I would have like to have had a Synopsis of the plot so I know where the musical numbers fit into the story. A libretto would have been nice too.

Never the less, I am glad to have this CD in my Broadway collection

Long unavailable and greatly prized by show music fanatics, ANYA (THE MUSICAL MUSICAL) has now made it's highly anticipated CD premiere as a limited edition disc from Kritzerland.

Based on the classic play "Anastasia" by Marcelle Maurette (which was adapted into English by Guy Bolton as a Broadway vehicle for Viveca Lindfors and later by Arthur Laurents in the Oscar-winning 1956 movie starring Ingrid Bergman), ANYA was written in 1965 for the musical theatre stage by popular songwriting team Robert Wright and George 'Chet' Forrest.

The plot (based on the life of Anastasia claimant Anna Anderson) follows a young orphan girl named Anya who is recruited by a group of Russian exiles into posing as the presumed-murdered Grand Duchess Anastasia, so that they might profit from the Tsar's hidden fortune. Along the way, romance and untold drama changes the path of Anya's life forever...

As they had done in earlier shows (SONG OF NORWAY, KISMET), Wright and Forrest appropriated the works of a classical composer into their melodies for ANYA, in this case Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninoff. Ironically, Rachmaninoff was a close friend of Anastasia claimant Anna Anderson during her New York visit in the early 1920s.

Cast in the title role was the stunning film actress Constance Towers (making her Broadway musical debut), with Michael Kermoyan, Karen Shepard, Irra Petina and esteemed movie legend Lillian Gish as the Dowager Empress.

With it's haunting and sweeping operetta score, ANYA was a creative masterpiece but a critical flop, dismissed as too "old-fashioned" and shuttered after only 16 performances at the Ziegfeld Theatre. In later years Wright and Forrest tried several different revised versions of the show (ANASTASIA, THE ANASTASIA AFFAIRE) but it never worked. I can see light opera companies successfully performing the original work as it's heard on the cast album, so perhaps Broadway was the wrong audience for this show after all--more's the pity.

Kritzerland has released the 1965 cast album of ANYA as a limited release of only 1,000 pressings, available directly through Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland website. Grab it now or live to regret it...

For years show fans have been waiting for this one, and here it is ! The music is gorgeous, the lyrics are thoughtful, romantic, funny, poetic, etc. The performers are all wonderful. I will never forget seeing this romantic, lavish operetta at the old Ziegfeld. I was deeply hurt in my youth by the ignorant newspaper reviews, but I wore out the LP, and performed some of the songs in cabaret. The lovely Miss Towers must be gratified by the release of this terrific career highlight. Thank you, Kritzerland ! Broadway fans, GRAB THIS ONE !!!

The score is the standout. The musical failed on Broadway from book problems. I was so happy to see it recorded. This is a fine example of the old fashioned musicals.