The basic idea is the same: Anya is a young woman who doesn't know who she is, wants to find out who she is, and Dimitri and Vlad are working as con artists to find someone who can convince the dowager empress that she is Anastasia. They travel to Paris to find the dowager empress and are trailed by an antagonist.

The details are what is radically different.

It is much more historically based. Instead of Anastasia being knocked out when running away with her grandmother, the Romanov's fate is the same as history: the children and their parents were sent to the House of Special Purpose and executed. Anastasia is rumored to have survived.

No Rasputin, no Bartok, no evil demon bats. The antagonist is Gleb, who is the son of one of the Romanov executioners and who is sent to track Anya, whom he knows, to find out if she may really be Anastasia. If she is, he is supposed to kill her.

There's a lot more little nods to history--Alexei falls down at the ball and everyone in the family looks stricken with terror; one of Anya's only possessions is a diamond that one of her nurses found hidden in her clothing; Gleb sings about how he lived near the Ipatiev House and one day heard the children laughing and playing inside the house, and then one night heard the shots and their dying screams. And one of Anya's memories is her dog, who was killed with the family. There are more references to the new government, including what is apparently a chilling sequence on the train where the passengers are reminded about the glory of the new Russia.

1/2

>>82775437
2/2
Songs are changed around. The songs from the film, with the exception of There's a Rumor in St. Petersburg and Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart, are in different spots in the story. Journey to the Past is the "I'm about to get to Paris and find my past" Act I bombastic closer. There is a new "I want" song in its place in the story. Once Upon a December takes place before Journey to the Past, just when they are going to leave St. Petersburg for Paris. There is a bunch of new music, including a duet for Dimitri and Anya. Vlad and "Sophie" (who is now Lily) have a more fleshed out relationship.

Oh and Dimitri has a darker backstory: his father was an anarchist who died in an imperial prison camp

>>82775573
Jesus, what about In The Dark of the Night?

Honestly, I'm just surprised that this musical was even made

>>82776802
No Rasputin, so no Dark of the Night. That's the only song that was fully cut.

>>82777085
I am too, considering that it's been through a bunch of different workshops and multiple hands.

I hope this has a good life on Broadway. It's premiering on Broadway either late this year or sometime next year. It is a really beautifully done show, visually (which is surprising given the budget) and otherwise.

>>82777214
The Russian Revolution is just a cool as fuck historical period

>>82777133
>The best song is cut
what the fuck

>>82777477
It has no place in the show without Rasputin. The antagonist is completely different, not just because he's not a evil wizard zombie with a chorus of colorful bugs, but because he's not hell-bent on destroying every last Romanov because muh grudge. Gleb is in love with Anya, so when he discovers she may be Anastasia, he's conflicted between his political beliefs and his feelings for her, as well as his own experience with the Romanovs.

>>82775421
Didn't Aaron Tveit audition for a role in this?

>>82778653
He was in one of the workshops. So was Angela Lansbury. Grapevine says that they might try to get Lansbury for Broadway to boost sales but I'm not sure it's feasible.