Anastasia: The New Broadway Musical | Piano Vocal Guitar Songbook with 14 Songs from the New Broadway Musical | Including Journey to the Past, Once Upon a December, and More

by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty (Composer)

Our vocal selections feature piano/vocal arrangements of 14 songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Close the Door * Everything to Win * Journey to the Past * Learn to Do It * Once upon a December * Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart) * A Rumor in St. Petersburg * Still * and more.

Genres: Romanovs, Plays, Musicals, Theatre

112 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2017

About the author

Lynn Ahrens has enjoyed a musical partnership with composer Stephen Flaherty since 1983. They are considered the foremost theatrical songwriting team of their generation.

For Broadway’s Ragtime, Ahrens and Flaherty won the Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. They wrote the score for Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film Anastasia, earning two Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations, and they also adapted the hit musical Anastasia for Broadway. Their many stage credits include Broadway’s Once On This Island and its recent revival (2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical); Seussical (one of the most produced shows in America); Rocky; Ragtime (Broadway premiere and 2009 revival); Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Lincoln Center Theater’s My Favorite Year, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose and The Glorious Ones; Lucky Stiff; and two upcoming musicals, Knoxville and Marie. Their mutual honors include the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement, London’s Olivier Award and four Grammy nominations. In 2015 they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Ahrens and Flaherty are Council members of the Dramatists Guild of America and proud co-founders of the DGF Fellows Program for Emerging Writers.

Individually, Ms. Ahrens is an Emmy Award-winner for her work as a television writer and producer. She received the Betty Comden Lilly Award for Lyrics, and Syracuse University’s highest honor, the Arents Award. She is a mainstay singer/songwriter for ABC-TV’s famed animated series Schoolhouse Rock, and she provided lyrics for the holiday extravaganza A Christmas Carol (composer, Alan Menken) which ran for ten holiday seasons at Madison Square Garden. She wrote the teleplay adaptation of A Christmas Carol for NBC, and the adapted screenplay for the movie version of Lucky Stiff. Her short stories and essays have been published nationally and have earned nominations for Best American Essays and the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Javier Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that this fictional happy ending isn't the real ending to a horrific real life story.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The script for Anastasia was horrible. Cheesy with planted dialogue to force character development and plot movement. There were rarely good transitions and it puts actors in a difficult bind trying to act through the poor script. The animated film script was MUCH better and I don't understand why they didn't incorporate more of that dialogue. And some of the storyline changes weren't smart. Dmitry and Anastasia's romance is much stronger in the film. The musical's flimsy meeting as children and threadbare dialogue cheapened their connection. As for the larger themes, the characters' longing for imperialism over communism was a bit cringey. Don't take such a complicated subject like forms of government and try to turn it into a bittersweet nostalgia for classism. Any anti-imperialism content was expressed by the villain, who values equality and speaks some truth about how people deserve control over their lives. I was also uncomfortable with how the mass murder of children was sensationalized.

The music is the highlight and carries the show. There are a few new songs that stand up to the charm and musicality of the movie - In My Dreams, We'll Go From There (so good!), The Countess and the Common Man, and In a Crowd of Thousands. It was a brilliant move to have Journey to the Past be the Act 1 ending showstopper. But so many of the new songs are slow ballads that don't lend themselves to a fun musical. Overall, I was disappointed with the musical, but I am still glad I saw it, discovered some new songs, and could listen to the originals sung live.