La Mirada Theatre has presented a stellar bang of a 2025-26 season, but with “Anastasia” things go out with a letdown, if not a whimper.
The production generates periodic boisterous fun along the way through brisk staging, galvanizing projections and splashy costuming, plus a few entertaining performances rippling out of the cast in bigger and smaller roles.
But an unconvincing “why do we care?” convoluted storyline ultimately takes its toll.
The show is based on the 1997 animated movie of the same title. In 2016, Broadway creators, playwright Terrence McNally, with composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens supplementing new songs into their original film score, decided to adapt and rework the material into a live stage work.
The talented trio behind “Anastasia” certainly has a Broadway royalty track record. Most notably they previously combined on the excellent adaptation and musicalizing of “Ragtime,” which on Sunday night won the 2026 Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
“Anastasia’s” underlying premise is based on rumors in Soviet Russia during the late 1920s: though the ruling Romanov family had been shot to death in 1918, the princess Anastasia had mysteriously and secretly survived assassination.
Springboarding this “what if” supposition, “Anastasia” makes for a topsy-turvy 2 ½ hours through an over-abundance of plot, an excess of characters and an overstuffed collection of 25 songs.
Lena Ceja stars in the title role in “Anastasia,” playing through June 28 at La Mirada Theatre for the performing arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
Suzanna Guzmán and Elayne Cowden appear in a scene from “Anastasia” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
Dillon Klena and Lena Ceja appear in a scene from “Anastasia” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
Peyton Crim, Lena Ceja and Dillon Klena appear in a scene from “Anastasia” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
“Anastasia” plays at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through June 28. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
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Lena Ceja stars in the title role in “Anastasia,” playing through June 28 at La Mirada Theatre for the performing arts. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
The story teeters on implausibility in turn after turn.
For example: an amnesiac young woman, supported by two somewhat lovable in-it-for-the money con men, with only an intermission in between, goes from street-sweeper rags in St. Petersburg to the haute-est of princess couture in Paris?
By the end of all the dashing about, McNally’s tale never decides if it wants audiences to believe the title character was, was not or just maybe could have been the real Anastasia.
(A couple of real-life spoilers. A woman in a mental asylum was touted to be the surviving dutchess. And other women periodically emerged from the woodwork, hoping to claim riches from any royal inheritance. DNA testing in this century from remains found in the Romanovs’, mass grave, established Anastasia did not survive).
La Mirada’s production, under the able enough direction and choreography of Parker Esse, bounces along through all these twists and turns.
A sustaining aspect is that there are quite a few performances to relish.
In the title role, Lena Ceja, who has played in “Anastasia” elsewhere, has the big act 1 finale warhorse “Journey to the Past” and she belts it out with assurance.
She teams up with love interest Dillon Klena as Dmitry notably in the heartfelt “In a Crowd of Thousands.”
The duo speak in contemporary, young-person American voices, a bit at odds with the Euro-accented dialogue from other members of the cast.
Dmitry’s con man partner, the oh-so-Russian called Vlad Popov, is excellently personified by the twinkly-eyed, merry Peyton Crim.
Crim also gives as good as he gets in the frantic, comic showstopper “The Countess and the Common Man” when he is paired with regional acting delight Sarah Wolter. Wolter, as quixotic expatriate Russian Countess Lily, channels peak era Carol Burnett in this raucous comedy duet.
Another veteran player who is more than along for the ride is the joyful casting of Suzanna Guzman as the Dowager Empress. An Emmy winner, Guzman’s operatic background and mezzo voice gives her the proper instrument to convey the winsome gravitas of loss in “Close the Door” as well as fueling her duet of reckoning with Anastasia in “Once Upon a December.”
The show has an unexpected delight in the second act. In a scene set at a Parisian performance hall there is an unexpected snippet of a pas de deux from “Swan Lake” danced in the foreground.
La Mirada’s casting for this Odette and Prince Siegfried elevates the couple’s moves in close quarters, Rasha Willes Samaha and Anton Harrison LaMon dancing with precision.
Equally unexpected, and extremely noticeable, is a third presence in the ballet scene. Kyle Vaughn’s considerable physical presence generated some surprise gasps from the audience at the pronounced extension with his leg kicks.
An additional La Mirada note: After 10 seasons, this is the final presentation under the theater’s Producing Artistic Director BT McNicholl, who departs for a new job running Pennsylvania’s Bucks County Playhouse.
Working alongside the theater’s longtime production company, McCoy Rigby Entertainment — which will continue to book and mount the theater’s Broadway series — McNicholl shepherded an impactful rebirth following the 1,250-seat theater’s darkest days of closure during the pandemic.
While other local theaters struggled to gain their footing, McNicholl oversaw a renovation of the theater’s seating, sound systems and lobby that later included the opening of the outdoor Courtyard Café space attached to the theater.
McNicholl also conceived of an upstairs lounge and jazz and cabaret club at the theater that is currently being constructed.
Jason Daunter, McNicholl’s replacement, was introduced from the stage at Saturday night’s opening performance.
‘Anastasia’
Rating: 3 stars (of a possible 4)
Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.
When: Through June 28. 7:30 p.m., Thursdays; 8 p.m., Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m., Saturdays; 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. There is no performance on Sunday, June 7 at 6:30 pm.
Tickets: $24-120.
Information: 714-994-6310, 562-944-9801; lamiradatheatre.com