In 1997, 20th Century Fox produced a film version of “Anastasia.” Now, students of Sierra Pacific High School will bring it to the stage April 3-5.
The musical discovers themes of self-discovery, hope, love, family, and the price of revolution. Anastasia is set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution when a young princess separated from her family. This happened when their kingdom was overthrown because of the antagonist, Rasputin.
Years later, the dutchess wants Anastasia to return so she puts a reward out for it. After seeing this, two men decide they need the reward so they decide to find a fake Anastasia with resemblance to her. They take her to the kingdom in Paris with no idea that she actually is the real Anastasia. The duchess is hesitant to believe it at first but comes to terms with the fact that it is really her.
With an intermission, the musical runs for about two hours and thirty minutes.
The Anastasia cast has worked very hard to put this musical together. With the auditions in September and the practices started in October the cast have been doing a lot to prepare. One of the leads, Seth Toste says, “The rehearsals have been going great and every single one of the cast, crew, and directors have put all their efforts into this show.”
Jadyn Padilla had mixed emotions about being on the stage one last time in high school.
“I am very sad to end my time with Sierra Pacific high school musical theater,” she said. “Because I have done the musical all four years of my high school career. I am sad to not see my theater friends everyday but on top of this, I am excited for what comes next for me in the theater world.”
Similarly, Toste, is very excited for the show but sad it is his last year. His favorite part of the show is a song that his character sings, called “Quartet at the Ballet.” His character Gleb is the antagonist and Toste’s favorite thing about him is that “he is the villain of the story but he’s not actually a bad guy.”
Padilla’s favorite part of the musical is the scene that takes place in the Neva Club. She said, “This scene is so much fun and definitely one of the harder dances. I find it very fun to be able to interact with sass in the scene while also being able to interact with my scene partners around me. The dance is full of tricks and I learned the skills for it which makes it even more fun of a scene to perform.”
Padilla thinks that people should go see it because you can really learn something from it. “People should go watch the musical because on top of being funny, emotional, and overall a great production, you can learn a lot from it.”
