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​​​​CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

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Anya/Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov – Cast (seeking understudy with guaranteed performance. understudy will double in featured ensemble).

●    Female - Playing age: 26

●    Lead role. Star Vehicle.

●    Range: G3-F5, Belt to D5. Disney-esque Soprano or Mezzo

●    Dance Requirement: Some movement

●    Anya is brave, fiery, witty, and above all determined. With no memory of her life before age 17 and having lived through the horrors of the Russian Revolution, Anya jumps at the sound of gunshots and is distrustful of strangers, but there is steel hiding just beneath the surface. Anya is strong-willed and compassionate. Her mantra, “Home, love, family” is her goal. All she knows is her family is in Paris and she will find them however she can.

 

Dmitry Sudayev – Cast (seeking understudy with guaranteed performance. understudy will double in featured ensemble).

●    Male - Playing age: 28

●    Lead role

●    Range: A2-G4. “Baritenor”

●    Dance Requirement: Some Movement

●    Dmitry is a scoundrel with a heart of gold. A street rat who grew into a conman, Dima does all he does to get out of poverty and is not above lying, cheating, and stealing to do so–that is until he meets Anya. What starts as just another scheme (albeit much bigger than anything he’s tried to pull off before) turns into the adventure of a lifetime that requires Dimitry to look inward and figure out how to put the one he loves before himself.

 

Vladimir “Vlad” Popov

●    Male - Playing age: Mid 40s-Early 50s (No age really specified)

●    Supporting Lead role

●    Range: A2-F4. Comic Baritone

●    Dance Requirement: Strong mover / dancer

●    Vlad is Dmitry’s partner in crime (literally) and surrogate father. Before the revolution he softie at heart. While he, like Dmitry, is not above lying, cheating, and stealing, he cares greatly for his loved ones and is generally affable, though he can be calculating when he needs to be.

 

Deputy Commissioner Gleb Vaganov

●    Male - Playing age: Mid 30s

●    Supporting Lead role

●    Range: A2-Gb4. Baritone with a strong upper extension.

●    Dance Requirement: None.

●    Gleb is the villain of the show, though not a bad person. He fully believes in the Communist ideals he follows. Loyal, honest, and hard working, Gleb almost has the potential to be a hero (he’s very much the hero of his own story). A deeply conflicted person, Gleb’s infatuation (and borderline obsession) with Anya leads to his battle with the idea of doing one’s duty vs. doing what is right.

 

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna Romanov

●    Female - Playing age: 70-80

●    Supporting role

●    Range: F3-B4. A regal Mezzo

●    Dance Requirement: none

●    The Dowager Empress has lost everything she once held dear and must now put up with imposter upon imposter never allowing her to grieve in peace. She is icy, proud, and regal (not to mention intimidating) to all but her family. Though, she does have a very sharp wit. She is especially warm with Anastasia both when a child and after it’s revealed that Anya really is the princess. She commands authority and attention the minute she enters a room.

 

Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch

●    Female - Playing age: 40’s - early 50’s 

●    Supporting role

●    Range: G3-B5. Jazzy Mezzo with an upper extension.

●    Dance Requirement: Strong dance ability required

●    Lily is the lady in waiting to the Dowager Empress. She has been by the Dowager’s side since before the revolution. Lily is clever, dutiful, and above all fun (when not working for the Dowager). She deals with her exile from Russia with a resigned dark humor…and a LOT of vodka. She and Vlad were once an item (unbeknownst to her oblivious husband) and rekindle their romance upon re-uniting.

 

Featured Ensemble Roles (some may be doubled. Open to gender fluid casting)

 

Tsar Nicholas

• Male - Playing age: 40’s-50’s

• A loving father. He tries to keep the peace between his mother, the Dowager Empress, and Tsarina. 

 

Tsarina Alexandria

• Female - Playing Age 40’s-50’s

• A stern and devout mother, burdened by grief over her son’s fragile health and consumed by paranoia about the crumbling regime.

 

Count Ipolitov

• Male - Playing age 30‘s-50’s

• Baritone - 

• Sings "Stay, I Pray You". A dignified White Russian intellectual, authoritative and formidable, who is deeply grieved by leaving his homeland.

 

Count Leopold

• Male - Playing age 20’s-40’s

• He’s one of the presumptive Romanov heirs; a snob; a bit of a fop. 

 

Commissioner Gorlinsky

• Male

• Gleb’s superior. Singing and lines.

 

Count & Countess Gregory

• Male and Female -playing ages 40’s-60’s

• Former Russian Aristocrats still clinging to their airs and old ways. 

• Featured in Land of Yesterday

 

Paulina, Dunya, Marfa 

• Females - playing ages 20’s-40’s

• Prostitutes who audition for the Fake-Anastasia scheme. Some lines.

 

Young Anastasia (Doubles in Ensemble as well)

●    Female - Playing age: ~5 

●    Featured role

●    Range: C4-C5, a sweet child soprano

●    Dance Requirement: Very little.

●    Young Anastasia is the willful, brave, proud, and precocious youngest daughter of the Tsar. She has a special bond with her grandmother (whom she calls Nana). 

 

Alexei (Doubles in Ensemble as well)

●    Male - Playing age: ~13 

●    Featured role

●    Range: C4-C5, a sweet child soprano

●    Dance Requirement: Very little.

●    Alexei was the Tsarevich (Heir to the throne) and only boy of the Romanov siblings. He suffered from debilitating hemophilia that often left him bed-ridden. Anya mentions that he was her best friend.

 

Olga, Tatiana, Mariya (the other Romanov Sisters)

Odette and Swans (Dancers in the ballet)

• Some of these tracks require dancing en pointe

• Olga track also dances, and Odette requires strong ballet ability.

 

Teen Anya

• A featured dance role in the opening sequence

• May also double as one of the featured ensemble and/or ballet dancers listed above.

• Sometimes understudies Anya

 

Additional Ensemble Tracks (which typically include principal understudy roles)

• In addition to the featured tracks above, - the Ensemble plays Townsfolk, Royal Servants, Bolshevik Officers and Soldiers, Parisians, Reporters, and Aristocrats.