Once Upon A December...

Take an incredible journey to the past as Slow Burn Theatre Company presents Anastasia at the Broward Center this holiday season. Born from the pens of Obie and Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally and Tony-winning writing team Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who ruled the Great White Way with their smash hit Ragtime, the musical draws on the score of the beloved animated film and includes the memorable melodies of Once Upon A December and Journey To The Past.

While it incorporates elements of the 20th Century Fox classic, this Anastasia avoids the film's more fantastical elements (gone are the talking bat and evil sorcerer Rasputin) in favor of a historically accurate version. Brand new songs are woven into a more nuanced narrative where common folk flee the Russian Revolution and are forced to settle into the new life. Amidst the peril of a changing regime, an orphan named Anya rises to embrace her destiny!

What is the story?

Orphaned at a young age and unable to remember her parents or family, feisty street sweeper Anya falls in with charismatic conmen Vlad and Dmitry who, seeing an opportunity they can't miss, train her in the ways of the aristocracy, in a style similar to Eliza in My Fair Lady. They have their sights set on Paris, where the Dowager Empress resides. Mother of the overthrown Tsar Nicholas II and one of the only surviving Romanovs after the Russian Revolution, the Dowager Empress holds out hope that her long-lost granddaughter Anastasia survived the terrible revolt.

Vlad and Dmitry, realizing Anya is the spitting image of Anastasia, convince her to sneak out of Russia with them to meet the Empress and claim their reward. Yet along their grand adventure, a budding romance blossoms between our heroine and the dashing young Dmitry, while the mystery of her birth unravels...