Interview: MSMT Panel Explores ANASTASIA and the World of the Romanovs

MSMT resumed its 11th season of the popular series, Peek Behind the Curtain, on June 11, 2025, presenting a panel of stars from the current production of ANASTASIA together with MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and BWW moderator Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold.

Held at  Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, the event drew through an enthusiastic crowd. Among the panelists were a Mary Ernster (Broadway WAR PAINT, THE NOTEBOOK, Winner 2 Jeff Awards), who portrays the Dowager Empress; Amanda Rose (Broadway MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, WICKED, National Tours of OKLAHOMA, WICKED,HOLIDAY INN), who plays Countess Lily; and Christopher Page-Sanders (THE FROGS, THE WIZ, DREAMGIRLS), who serves as Associate Choreographer and Dance Captain of the show.

The conversation took up the themes of historical context, antecedents and special features of Terrence McNally’s book and Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s score, character conflicts in ANASTASIA, the visual production’s use of video and spectacular costuming, and the prevailing feeling of elegance and nostalgia the production evokes.

Her are some of the most striking observations from the conversation:

Curt Dale Clark

• I always argue to the rights houses that our audience is like no other. The MSMT  audience [members] are people, like yourselves, who feel a sense of pride in our theatre. I consider it our responsibility to do everything we can to give them the very best.”
• “ANASTASIA feels like an old-fashioned musical – something Lerner and Loewe could have written.  The melodies lend themselves to nostalgia; there is an opulence and elegance and the sense if past glory.”
• “Music Director Kevin Stites is widely known as the best of the best for ensemble and choral music, and those moments are strikingly beautiful in this show.”

Amanda Rose

• Lily is not a real historical character.  I think Terrence McNally uses her to move the story along and make it funny.”
• Lily longs for love, for Russia the way it used to be, for home and family. The whole Neva Club scene is about her missing Russia the way it used to be.”

Mary Ernster

• “In most musical structures the eleven o’clock number would be a song – something cathartic that wraps up the story – but in ANASTASIA it is the confrontation scene [between the Dowager and Anastasia]. My character throws at Anastasia every obstacle she can, but at every turn, Anya reveals something true. It’s the moment that two people who have been looking for something for a very long time get to experience the real truth. It is magic theatrically  - fantasy and a princess story that lift the entire play up.”
• “The Dowager longs to find her favorite grandchild is still alive.  When she finally recognizes Anya as Anastasia she says, ‘What took you so long?,’ and Anya replies, “I’m home now’ to which the Dowager sadly says, ‘You’ve come too late.’ I thought about the meaning of my response, and then I realized that the year is 1928 and the Dowager died in 1928, so there is an immediacy to this reunion just before she passed.”

Christopher Page-Sanders

• “Dance is very much connected to culture and storytelling. So much of the music [in ANASTASIA] has swirling waltz themes, so we choreographed lots of waltzes, as well as traditional Russian dance, and injected the sparkle of champagne that Paris in the 1920s represents.”
• Besides nostalgia and longing, another theme is dreaming. What do our dreams mean? How do we turn dreams into reality?”
• The Swan Lake ballet at the Paris Opera is a gorgeous scene where the themes are home, love, family. Anya, the Dowager, Dimitry and Gleb sing a beautiful quartet juxtaposed with hints of Tchaikovsky’s music.  The dancers and their story are mirror images of the four [Russian] characters.”

Photo courtesy of MSMT, Dane Whitlock, photographer

ANASTASIA runs from June 4 to June 21, 2025 at MSMT’s Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME 04011  207-725-8769  www.msmt.org