ANASTASIA ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING

This cast did an amazing job telling the story of Anastasia. It's one of those soundtracks you can listen to on repeat.

For a long time I wasn't sure about this soundtrack, so I never checked it out cause for me I've always felt the original was enough for me. However the moment I listened to it I fell in love. It has 8 songs from the original and 17 new ones. If you have not scene the Broadway play, some of them might not make sense but they all still sound so beautiful. And even with the 8 original songs, several of them [A Rumor in St. Petersburg, Learn to Do It and Paris Holds the Key To Your Heart] they added new verses to, and they sound really good. I really do adore all of them. Give it a listen to these songs just as they were originally on Broadway.

There's always a moment of trepidation with an adaption of a beloved childhood movie. Will it hold up to your nostalgia? Will the inevitable changes ruin it? Will a different cast mangle your memories?Fortunately, Anastasia holds up on all accounts. I actually saw the show live on Broadway last Wednesday before buying the album today on Amazon, and it was wonderful. The new songs are good and hold up well alongside the originals, the originals are as good as they've always been, even the one that makes a completely different appearance as a different song.There's no Rasputin in this version, the 'villain' changing to the new Russia and its stamping out of the old order. Even the 'bad guy', Gleb, is a fairly sympathetic character in the end. It works well; as much as I love Rasputin in the original it would be awkward to pull off in a musical and a little silly. I liked the new direction a lot; it's more adult and lends more pathos. The song 'In the Dark of the Night' makes an appearance still, parts of its tune are used for 'Stay, I Pray You'.Definitely give the album a listen and see the show if you can.

With some lovely songs buried in a somewhat obscure animated movie from 1997, Flaherty and Ahrens were given the opportunity to expand their score and take it to the next level. Having thoroughly enjoyed the out-of-town production for the musical, I certainly am happy to finally have the CD. The fanciful version of the Anastasia legend certainly provides the basis for a lovely romantic musical with a couple of side stories that are nicely connected to the central story about the possible Anastasia. The cast, headed by Christine Altomare’s putative Anastasia, sings beautifully, there is a large chorus, and the orchestra has 22 players. It’s everything that I want from an original Broadway cast album.Okay, this is not anything like the music of “Kinky Boots”, “Hamilton” or “Dear Evan Hansen”, using the last 3 Tony winners by way of comparison. It’s typical of the 1990’s, a recipe that does not generally work well in 2017, e.g. “Doctor Zhivago” from 2015. Flaherty does a nice job, though, of channeling the flavor of Russian music back to Tchaikovsky, always lovely to encounter. So enjoy, it’s a long way from “The King and I” or “South Pacific”, ancient musicals recently successfully revived.

The media could not be loaded. I'M SO HAPPY! THE VINYL LOOKS GREAT! IT SOUNDS AMAZING! CAME FAST & IN GOOD CONDITION😊 Got myself this for a birthday gift because I'm stuck inside with covid, I'm so happy I did! Listened to Journey to the Past 10x already! Just so happy with this purchase!I never got to see the show but maybe one day...But this will do just fine for now...I feel like I'm there listening!One more thing, I heard the broadway songs before but the new ones I couldn't really get into.. until I heard it on vinyl. Sounds so good!If I close my eyes and use my imagination It totally sounds like the show is going on in my living room! 100% recommend 😍

I saw this show at Hartford Stage in 2016, before it went to Broadway. The show was fantastic. The staging was very clever, the music was moving, and the performers really were engaged. This show gets rid of the "Rasputin" part of the story line from the animated film and adds a different antagonist, which I think improves the story greatly.The music on this original cast recording brought the show back to life for me. You can feel the wonder of Anna as she goes on her journey of discovering who she really is, and you can sense Dimitri's inner struggle as he not only realizes the Anna is really Anastasia, but that he is falling in love with her, and his con is becoming the fulfillment of a dream. The musical numbers here are written as a Broadway show should be written, with big numbers for dancing and soft numbers for the parts where the characters express their inner most feelings, all while advancing the story line.

This is an excellent recording of the show, and it works well even if you haven't see the show. There are, in fact, several songs which I think are better rendered on this recording than in the live show (for example, the climactic moment in In A Crowd Of Thousands, where Anastasia remembers Dmtiry from when they were young). In general, the voices and orchestrations are simply wonderful.You should be aware that (probably because of the size limitations of a CD), there are portions of the music and songs of the show that do not appear on this recording. This is common practice for cast recordings, and this recording works well without what was cut, but somehow, when I saw the show, I noticed it more than I sometimes do.The recording is really five-star quality all the way... the reason I rated it four stars is because the liner notes were omitted from the MP3 purchase. Amazon blames the recording producer and the recording producer blames Amazon... and we end up with no liner notes.I highly recommend this recording.

A well received gift by my adult grandson. He has fallen in love with the music and the story. It is currently his second favorite musical.