Expand<\/a><\/p>\nThe story teeters on implausibility in turn after turn.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
By the end of all the dashing about, McNally\u2019s tale never decides if it wants audiences to believe the title character was, was not or just maybe could have been the real Anastasia.<\/p>\n
(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\u2019, mass grave, established Anastasia did not survive).<\/p>\n
La Mirada\u2019s production, under the able enough direction and choreography of Parker Esse, bounces along through all these twists and turns.<\/p>\n
A sustaining aspect is that there are quite a few performances to relish.<\/p>\n
In the title role, Lena Ceja, who has played in \u201cAnastasia\u201d elsewhere, has the big act 1 finale warhorse \u201cJourney to the Past\u201d and she belts it out with assurance.<\/p>\n
She teams up with love interest Dillon Klena as Dmitry notably in the heartfelt \u201cIn a Crowd of Thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duo speak in contemporary, young-person American voices, a bit at odds with the Euro-accented dialogue from other members of the cast.<\/p>\n
Dmitry\u2019s con man partner, the oh-so-Russian called Vlad Popov, is excellently personified by the twinkly-eyed, merry Peyton Crim.<\/p>\n
Crim also gives as good as he gets in the frantic, comic showstopper \u201cThe Countess and the Common Man\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Another veteran player who is more than along for the ride is the joyful casting of Suzanna Guzman as the Dowager Empress.\u00a0An Emmy winner, Guzman\u2019s operatic background and mezzo voice gives her the proper instrument to convey the winsome gravitas of loss in \u201cClose the Door\u201d as well as fueling her duet of reckoning with Anastasia in \u201cOnce Upon a December.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cSwan Lake\u201d danced in the foreground.<\/p>\n
La Mirada\u2019s casting for this Odette and Prince Siegfried elevates the couple\u2019s moves in close quarters, Rasha Willes Samaha and Anton Harrison LaMon dancing with precision.<\/p>\n
Equally unexpected, and extremely noticeable, is a third presence in the ballet scene. Kyle Vaughn\u2019s considerable physical presence generated some surprise gasps from the audience at the pronounced extension with his leg kicks.<\/p>\n
An additional La Mirada note: After 10 seasons, this is the final presentation under the theater\u2019s Producing Artistic Director BT McNicholl, who departs for a new job running Pennsylvania\u2019s Bucks County Playhouse.<\/p>\n
Working alongside the theater\u2019s longtime production company, McCoy Rigby Entertainment \u2014 which will continue to book and mount the theater\u2019s Broadway series \u2014 McNicholl shepherded an impactful rebirth following the 1,250-seat theater\u2019s darkest days of closure during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
While other local theaters struggled to gain their footing, McNicholl oversaw a renovation of the theater\u2019s seating, sound systems and lobby that later included the opening of the outdoor Courtyard Caf\u00e9 space attached to the theater.<\/p>\n
McNicholl also conceived of an upstairs lounge and jazz and cabaret club at the theater that is currently being constructed.<\/p>\n
Jason Daunter, McNicholl\u2019s replacement, was introduced from the stage at Saturday night\u2019s opening performance.<\/p>\n
\u2018Anastasia\u2019<\/p>\n
Rating: 3 stars (of a possible 4)<\/p>\n
Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Tickets: $24-120.<\/p>\n
Information: 714-994-6310, 562-944-9801; lamiradatheatre.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Mirada Theatre has presented a stellar bang of a 2025-26 season, but with \u201cAnastasia\u201d things go out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5311,420],"class_list":["post-353324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-theater-arts","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-ANASTASIA-0610-02.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Suzanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-ANASTASIA-0610-03.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dillon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-ANASTASIA-0610-04.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"Peyton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-ANASTASIA-0610-05.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n![\"\u201cAnastasia\u201d](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OCR-L-ANASTASIA-0610-06.jpeg?w=620\")
<\/p>\n