Anastasia (Sydney Lyric) ★★★★

Music by Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Book by Terrence McNally, Inspired by the 20th Century Fox motion picture from the play by Marcelle Maurette as adapted by Guy Bolton. Sydney Lyric. 7 Apr – 5 Jul, 2026

Forget the violently bloody, complicated history and rush headlong into the fantasy of lost princesses and glamorous gowns. Anastasia is here to sweep you up with its mix of luxurious costumes and stunning vocals — just ignore the clunky book.

Welcome to St Petersburg, Russia, in the aftermath of Lenin’s October Revolution. The locals are struggling to survive, living in fear of their new Bolshevik leaders. They hold on to memories of the old Romanov royalty, whispering that the young Grand Duchess Anastasia survived the assassination of her family, and that her grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Nancye Hayes), is offering a reward to anyone who can find her.

This inspires riff-raff, scoundrel, street-rat Dmitry (Robert Tripolino), and Vlad (Rodney Dobson), the dirty rotten con-man who masquerades as gentry to swindle rich women, to convince lonely, amnesiac street-sweeper, Anya (Georgina Hopson), that she may be the missing Duchess — and claim the reward. But they’re not the only ones who’ve heard the rumours. Bolshevik General Gleb Vaganov (Joshua Robson) has orders to find the Duchess, and kill her.

It’s the combined vocal power of the three leads — Hopson, Tripolino and Robson — that makes Anastasia rise above the frankly awful storytelling (Terrence McNally, hang your head in shame). This show sounds divine. Between them they have charm to spare and a natural onstage chemistry that breaks through some of the more awkward staging and direction. They may not stray far from their well-worn character tropes — scruffy street hero, plucky posh princess, tortured not-that-bad bad guy — but they fill them with the right amount of life.

Songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (the musical minds behind Ragtime and Once on This Island) know their way around a tune and give each character standout musical moments. That they also composed the score for the 1997 animated film makes this a more seamless adaptation than it might otherwise have been.

As someone who’d never seen the 1997 film (unlike the hordes of Fan-astasias in the audience) I walked in a blank slate. After seeing some of the Melbourne headlines, I don’t want to accuse my southern neighbours of being a little, um, snobbish, but complaints about historical inaccuracy seem churlish, all things considered (Shakespeare was no stickler for facts either). In terms of story this is no worse than wafer-thin Disney stage shows like Beauty & the Beast or Frozen.

Which isn’t to say the show is without problems. The book, as mentioned, does the bare minimum and makes some truly weird choices — the story pivots, bizarrely, on the scent of Nancye Hayes’ bosom?!

My main issue is the LED-heavy set, which flattens every scene into paper-thin mundanity, no matter how pretty the video animations are. I’m sure it makes the show more affordable to tour, but it lacks any sense of scale. Thank god for Linda Cho’s luscious costumes and Peggy Hickey’s beautiful choreography, which fill the empty stage with actual physical presence.

But this is a musical, and it’s the songs — and the voices singing them — that won me over. These are lovely tunes sung to perfection, there is such precision in Hopson, Tripolino and Robson’s voices it’s a joy to revel in. And if any producer is looking to bring The Great Gatsby musical to town: here are your three leads.

This is a classic style of musical theatre that will please fans of the film and romantic musicals everywhere. It may not be particularly fresh or groundbreaking, but it hits all the right notes — literally.