(Sacred) Heart don’t fail them now! Courage won’t desert them! Step right up— now that you’re there! People always say— theatre’s full of good times— things to make you clap and cheer! See their stage and their cast— let them take you— on this journey…to the past! Now, if you sang that intro to this review against the tune in your head, we know you’re a true fan of Anastasia! The Grand Duchess Anastasia? It’s a rumor— a rumor— in Glyndon(burg) They’re dancing— they’re singing— they’re on their feet! Anastasia at Glyndon Area Players is here— and yes, please do repeat!
Directed by Homero Bayarena with Assistant Directors Josiah Nusbaum & Lori True, with Vocal Direction by Lori Anderson, Orchestral Direction by Bo Weaver* and Choreography by Lori Maccia, this community area premiere of Anastasia (based on the 1997 animated film of the same name) has heart and charm and will take you on an enchanting journey to the past.
Wearing multiple hats, per GAP’s tradition, Director Homero Bayarena is doubling up as one of the show’s two Set Designers, alongside Michael Parks. The mottled cobbles of stone that line the front of the stage have an old-world look about them. The alcoves with pivot-spinning doors are outlined with the same rock-style design, helping to transport the audience back to the turn of the 20th century first in Russia then in Paris. It’s the projections along the back scrim (all of which are animated) that truly enhance the ‘journey’ of Anastasia, whether you’re on the train fleeing Russia or when those eerie shades of Russian royalty come dancing across like true ghosts of memory. The most impressive piece of the scenic work is the mini-turn-table (manually powered but so deceptively well-placed and executed that you really have to go on a Clouseau-style hunt to see the crew-hand in action; a job truly well done as it turns not only the train carriage but the Tzar family and others at multiple instances throughout the performance!)
With the set being so deceptively simplistic, allowing for wide open spaces one has high hopes for both the expedience of scenic changes and overall fluidity of the transitions from moment to moment in the performance. The pacing of Saturday night’s performance was just a little off from a technical standpoint. Scenery seemed just a step or two behind the beat coming on and off. There were moments when furnishings were late arriving or late leaving, all just a little out of synch. But, Orchestra Conductor Bo Weaver was on top of these moments as they occurred, extending musical vamps so that the audience was never stuck in silence but it just gave the performance an overall sluggish feel. The scene work and musical numbers moved swiftly, however, which kept the audience engaged with the performance. Bo Weaver leads an outstanding all-volunteer orchestra for the entire production, creating bright, warming sounds from the 20-person pit for each musical number that graces the stage.
The one musical number where Lori Maccia’s choreography was given the chance to truly shine was “Land of Yesterday”, which featured a series of flapper-dressed ladies in Paris doing a wildly zesty kickline, enticing the audience to enjoy the dancing. Maccia also does an exceptional job with the “Quartet at the Ballet” which features five stupendous ballet-dancers— Faith Folio as the White Swan Queen, Bailey Gomes as the Black Swan, Kenny Alam as the White Swan King and Claire Jabaji, Megan McCormick, Megan O’Brien, and Christina Pitts as the swan-lake ballerinas. Watching this ‘ballet-within-a-musical’ is truly a striking moment that showcases Folio, Alam, and Gomes’ exquisite ballet skills and draws the eye intently to the mystical escapism that the characters on stage (Dowager Empress, Anya, etc.) are so desperate to achieve when they’re watching this scene unfold.
Costumes across the board were eye-catching, by way of Homero Bayarena (the third of at least four or five hats he wears in this production), Kari O’Donnell, Elaine Bayarena, and Susan Zepp. Even the distressed, tatty rags that Anya first appears in seem to fit her character sublimely. The true gems in the menagerie of this show’s couture are the blue affair seen on Anya at the ballet and the red Russian ballgown she wears near the end of the production. Of course it’s no small feat to get over a dozen dancing girls into colorful flapper dresses, which get featured during “Land of Yesterday” and all the distressed togs that pop up for the drunks and street folk when the show kicks off in Russia. And everything glitters with shiny sparkles for both the Dowager Empress and her Lady in Waiting, Lily. It’s hard to say who has the more impressive pieces between the two— Lily certainly gets an array that are just striking to behold, but that glorious ‘night-sky-inspired’ affair that the Dowager Empress wears to the ballet is just stunning.
Sound Designer Charles Hirsch and Lighting Designer Jim Shomo take their duties seriously and deliver high-quality effects in both the illumination and auditory landscape department. Hirsch has a masterful handle on gunshots versus cars backfiring (and that’s an important tangential side-note to the plot) and balances those against softer pops for fireworks. Shomo does a wonderful job of creating moments of emotional stillness with his lighting, particularly whenever it comes to highlighting the show-stealing antagonist, Gleb, in all of his villainous red tones. Add into the mix the Technical Direction Team, spearheaded by Scott Molony and Michael Parks, for unique moments like real snow in Petersburg, and you’ve got a lot of visually and aurally pleasing facets of this production that bring the magic of theatre to life.
Vocally the cast is balanced. Vocal Director Lori Anderson is working some magic of her own to get solid sounds from the ensemble— and it’s a pretty big ensemble. You get fulfilling sounds for “A Rumor in St. Petersburg”, “Paris Holds the Key”, and “Land of Yesterday.” Anderson works some magic getting those ‘drunkards’ of the ensemble to carry that inebriated sound into “The Neva Flows (Reprise)” without compromising the actual articulation of the lyrics, and that’s impressive. Anderson works hand in hand with Director Homero Bayarena and Acting Coach Lori True to balance the singing sounds against the character work on stage resulting in an overall polished feel. (There are definitely some moments when our ensemble is a little excited about being on stage and their ‘pretend whispering’ becomes real whispering that occasionally catches on the mics, but they’re just so overjoyed it’s hard to fault them there.) One of the things that Bayarena, True, and Anderson pull off spectacularly is the spatial awareness of the cast on the stage, whether they’re singing, having moments of character work, or making their entrances and exits. With a cast of nearly five-dozen people, the stage never feels overcrowded or cramped (except for in the train car, which is very clearly meant to be cramped!) This is a tremendous team effort, making sure you still get fully supported sounds with clean spacing on stage and believable scene work and it’s an effort that is well achieved by Bayarena, Anderson, True, and the cast.
Taking up one final hat (though it’s a crown this time) Homero Bayarena takes his place on stage as Tzar Nicolas, complete with a regal uniform and curl-pointed mustache. The Romanov Family— Little Anastasia (Peighton Daniels), Tsarina Alexandr (Lori Maccia), Alexei (Jesse Skidmore), Teen Anastasia (Gray Jabaji), and the Romanov Daughters (Natalie Beller, Hannah Graham, Samantha Reynolds)— appear with Bayarena’s Tzar Nicohlas in white and gold dancing through memory moments and haunting Anya throughout the performance. One of the most striking visuals in the show is when Bayarena and the Romanovs march in slow-motion backwards up onto the turntable toward the end of the performance, as the showdown with Gleb and Anya is happening in live time downstage center.
The ensemble** is chock-a-block with performers of note, not the least of which are the— let’s call them the darkened-un-Disney version of the Silly-Girls (aka prostitutes)— Natalie Beller, Samantha Brady, and Colleen Esposito. This trio of character actors, while most notable in these ‘lady of the night’ roles— especially when they’re auditioning for Dmitri trying to pass themselves off as The Grand Duchess Anastasia— can be seen throughout the performance doing all sorts of humorous antics, especially Esposito in “The Press Conference” where she’s bouncing around as a reporter. The drunks (David Finch, Kenny Alam, Neil Beller, Scott Molony) are another bunch to keep your eyes on as they create lovely laughable moments, particularly when Anya and Dmitri have to fend them off on the streets (with some pretty clean fight choreography by way of Coleen Esposito’s fight choreography.) And you get a real moment of musical goosebumps from ensemble member Hugh Carson, playing Count Ipolitov, near the conclusion of Act I when he starts off “Stay, I Pray You” as an acapella solo. It’s somber and sobering in tone and emotion and Carson’s voice does a fine service to the music as written.
With seasoned wisdom echoing in her voice, Elise Finch is a most remarkable Dowager Empress. You get to see a softer, kinder side of her character early on in the brief interaction she shares with eager-eyed Little Anastasia (Peighton Daniels) and then watch the bitterness rise inside the ‘tired old woman’ character as she is presented in the second act. Finch moves stupendously well on her cane, fully convincing the audience of the character’s age. But she still carries herself with regal dignity and effortless grace, perfectly befitting the character of the Dowager Empress. Vocally, Finch is a delight for her moments in song, particularly the duet that opens the show, “Prologue: Once Upon a December”, the song she shares with Daniels’ Little Anastasia. “Close The Door” her solo near the top of the second act is quite heartfelt and very sad to hear.
With an eager modernity that at times makes you question if he’s a time-traveler or just a poor Russian fella down on his luck and being hopeful for a brighter future, Josiah Nusbaum tackles the role of Dmitri with a playful aggression that is reminiscent of the animated film. His duet with Anya (Amber Bates) “In a Crowd of Thousands” was endearing and felt as if the pair of them were truly living out that memory. Nusbaum delivers an incredibly lush sound with this glorious belted sustain at the end of “Everything To Win” showcasing just how well that song sits in his vocal range. His energetic enthusiasm works well for “Learn to Do It” and you get a frightening moment from him when he goes after the Dowager Empress, playing up that cartoon-energy into something startling.
In the role of the titular character— or is she, the world may never truly know— Amber Bates brings a technically flawless vocal skillset to Anya/Anastasia. Watching her little moments, particularly when she’s interacting with Gleb, is what really draws you into her portrayal. Of course she’s channeling Disney-princess sound quality (yes, yes, we know Anastasia isn’t a true-Disney, but that’s irrelevant) for all of her solos, particularly “Once Upon a December” and “Journey to the Past.” There’s also a frenetic sense of unease about Bates’ Anya, particularly when she’s clutching and grasping at the memories she cannot recall. You get a real sense of this during “In My Dreams” and “A Secret She Kept.” And there are little moments of discovery too— you see it in her eyes and watch (because it’s subtle) the way her body language shifts when she’s singing in duet at Dmitri during “In a Crowd of Thousands” and she lands that line… “…and then he bowed.” And the way Bates’ transitions her overall physicality from street-sweeping urchin girl to The Grand Duchess is quite impressive.
It’s astonishing to me when a dismissible character (because librettist Terrence McNally couldn’t be bothered to figure out how to translate Rasputin and Bartok onto the stage without Disney’s money backing him) like Gleb becomes a true focal point for a production, but with the right actor, the right director, and the right acting coach— you get exactly that with Casey Gomes in the role of Gleb. Delivering this truly villainous, dark and almost disturbing character, Gomes digs his boot-heel into the depth of the character (that is often so readily overlooked because of how bland McNally has made him in the libretto) and just completely changes the dynamic of both the character and the plot trajectory. Gomes has a superior voice that juts melts its way through “The Rumors Never End” and “The Neva Flows.” It creates a frightening juxtaposition because Gomes’ voice is so beautiful and haunting but clearly Gleb is this antagonistic villain; you just don’t know how to feel about it! Everything from the way Gomes stalks about the stage, to the intensity with which he stares at Anya; you get this sense that he is this omnipresent malevolence and yet simultaneously human. There’s little moments— in his eyes, in the way he delivers certain lines— that show you the tiniest slivers of humanity; it’s fascinating and deeply impressive. Listening to Gomes tackle “Still” at the end of Act I is the pinnacle of this human-vs-monster struggle that he’s bound-up into the character; it looks and sounds as if the number is tearing him asunder from the inside out. And you get that haunting reprise of those emotions during “Quartet at the Ballet” (which features the striking voices of Elise Finch, Amber Bates, and Josiah Nusbaum, singing in perfect four-part harmony up against him.) “Land of Yesterday (Reprise)” is sinister but smooth and the honest-to-God heart-stopping moment comes immediately after Gomes finishes “Still/The Neva Flows (Reprise)” and you see him, eyes burning in that showdown with Anya and the deciding moment thereafter (don’t want to spoil it but it is so incredibly powerful.) Casey Gomes creates one of the most versatile portrayals of villainy to be seen on stage in recent theatre history.
And if you’re going to have a show-stealing villain, then you better have to sparkling aces up your sleeve to snatch that attention back with their comic antics. And you’ve got it with Vlad Popov (Seth Hench) and Countess Lily (Azaria Oglesby.) The only shame to be had where Oglesby is concerned is that you don’t really get to encounter her character until the second act, but this woman knows how to make up for lost stage time and boy does she ever. The pair— even though they don’t ‘get together’ until midway through the back-half of the show, have immediate skyrocket chemistry that just explodes all over the place. And their physical antics and shenanigans are a hoot, true screaming-with-laughter nonsense that just has you rolling in the aisles in stitches. Hench and Oglesby are clearly in some sort of one-upmanship with one another during “The Countess and The Common Man”, trying to physically outdo the other with their romantic tomfoolery. And it is delightful! The audience could not stop laughing! Not to mention the pair of them sing so divinely. You’ve got a pair of powerhouse vocals tucked away in these supporting characters and its absolutely extraordinary.
Hench is a physical riot onto himself even before he encounters Countess Lily. When the trio of Dmitri, Anya, and Vlad are fleeing to Paris all of his antics with “…but Anya is tired…” (matched by her looks of confusion followed with cute eye-rolling) are just hysterical. At one point, Hench does a full-on penguin-style bellyflop and slide down onto the floor and it has the audience just rolling. His physical comedy, matched up with his expressive facial features and robust voice, which carries superbly during “A Rumor in St. Petersburg”, “We’ll Go From There”, and “Learn To Do It”, makes him a true radiant gem in this production. (If anyone out there wants to put together the music and libretto for Anastaisa 1 ½ : The Story of Lily & Vlad I highly recommend these two for the parts!)
And the show-stopping jazz-belt that roars out of Azaria Oglesby during “Land of Yesterday” will have you literally having to pause and pick your jaw up off the floor. You get a brief glimpse of the Countess Lily in the first act, when she has to help the Dowager Empress offstage after the harrowing news of what has happened to the Royal Tzar and family. And you see Oglesby, an ordinary woman. Fine. Then you see her getting a little more flippant in the second act when she’s telling off Count Leopold (Charles Dickinson.) Still seemingly nothing to write home about. But then— Oglesby knocks your socks off, blows you down, and just bursts with this mind-blowing, vocal talent that could easily take the roof right off of Sacred Heart Parish School Auditorium. She’s not only belting her face off with smoldering jazz sound during “Land of Yesterday” but she’s selling the concept of true grandeur, raunchy nostalgia, and utter passionate bliss for the sake of enjoying one’s self, and let me tell you, every single person in that audience was buying it. A vocal sensation with attitude for miles, Oglesby (especially when paired off with Hench— watch them bicker during “The Press Conference” and try not to laugh!) is that shocking sensation that you had no idea you were missing when it comes to Anastasia.
Paris may hold the key for Anya, Vlad, and Dmitri…but Glyndon Area Players holds the key for some truly magical performances that will just blow your mind. Catch their production of Anastasia through August 11th and travel with them on a journey to the past!
Running Time: Approximately 3 hours with one intermission
Anastasia plays through August 11th 2024 at the Glyndon Area Players in the Sacred Heart School Auditorium— 63 Sacred Heart Lane in Glyndon, MD. Tickets are available at the door or in advance online.
*Bo Weaver and his live orchestra including: Andrew Trainer on percussion, Lori Anderson on key1, Diane Jones on key2, Cyndy Wachob, Mary Haaser, Suzanne Mescan on reed1, Cathy Nusbaum, Cindy Suchanek on reed2, Adam Corson, Jamie Kim on reed3, Stephen Kaltreider on horn, Carissa Hench on trumpet, Cassie VanScoyoc on trombone/euphonium, Danielle Gallina, Alex Daudelin on violin, Rachael Daudelin on violin2, Ann Marie Cordial, Sharon Aldouby, Alice Brown on cello, and Lydia Casteel on bass.
**Ensemble Including: Kenny Alam, Nellie Angerer, Cassidey Artson, Adalynn Bates, Homero Bayarena, Natalie Beller, Neil Beller, Samantha Brady, Colette Buechler-Neimeyer, Laila Bynum, Hugh Carson, Claire Case, Allison Ciborowski, Phylicia Conley, Karen Curtis, Peighton Daniels, Cheryl Degenhardt, Charles Dickinson, Joe Dorsey, Colleen Esposito, Donna Feher, David Finch, Sydney Finch, Faith Folio, Jay Frisby, Hannah Graham, Bailey Gomes, Tyler Harris, Claire Jabaji, Gray Jabaji, Marcus Jones, Molly Kelsh, Kelly Kluka, Lori Maccia, Megan McCormick, Addy Molony, Lia Molony, Scott Molony, Sawyer Moore, Seeley Moore, Jack Nelson, Megan O’Brien, Jodi O’Connell, Vanshika Pallerla, Christina Pitts, Samantha Reynolds, Adam Roush, Gavin Rios, Niko Rios, Kristan Miller Scott, Jesse Skidmore, Angela Yeung,
