“There are evenings when the lights dim and the world outside simply ceases to exist. Opening night of Anastasia at the Sydney Lyric Theatre was exactly that kind of evening — and I gave it a standing ovation without hesitation.”
I will be honest with you: I walked into the Sydney Lyric Theatre carrying twenty-eight years of nostalgia. My entire knowledge of Anastasia came from the 1997 animated film — a movie I watched so many times the VHS tape began to protest. I knew every melody. I knew the heartbreak of a little girl separated from her grandmother on the banks of a freezing river. I knew the thrill of Paris and the warmth of a love story told in animation. What I did not know was that the stage musical would take everything I treasured about that film and transform it into something richer, deeper, and achingly more human.
Opening night at the Sydney Lyric was electric from the moment we took our seats. There was that particular charge in the air that only opening nights carry, the shared anticipation of an audience on the edge of something. And when the lights finally fell and the first haunting notes of the overture rose from the orchestra pit, the theatre seemed to hold its breath as one.
What followed over the next two and a half hours was, without question, one of the most enchanting theatrical experiences I have had in years. This is the kind of show that reminds you why live performance can never be replicated by any screen, because the magic in that room on opening night was alive, breathing, and utterly impossible to put into a frame.
A Mystery a Century in the Making
To truly appreciate what unfolds on this stage, it helps to understand the legend that inspired it. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia. In July 1918, as the Russian Revolution tore the old world apart, the entire Romanov family was executed by Bolshevik forces in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg. But rumours refused to die. For decades, whispers circulated that Anastasia, just seventeen years old, had somehow survived. Those whispers fed imaginations around the world for over eighty years, spawning books, investigations, and films, until DNA evidence in the early 2000s finally confirmed the tragic truth.
But myths, once they take root in the human heart, are not so easily extinguished. And it is precisely in that beautiful, aching gap between truth and hope that Anastasia the musical lives.
The story follows a young woman named Anya, an amnesiac with no memory of her past, who crosses paths with two charming con men, Dmitry and Vlad, who believe she could be the missing duchess. Together they journey from the ruins of revolutionary St. Petersburg to the gilded streets of 1920s Paris, chasing a past that may or may not belong to her. It is a story about identity, belonging, and the fierce human need to know where we come from, and the show tells it with a grandeur that is breathtaking.
A World Built From Pure Imagination
If there is a single word for the set design of this production, it is: opulent. From the very first scene, the glittering ballroom of the Winter Palace frozen in a memory, to the cobblestone romance of Parisian streets and the golden haze of a city reborn after loss, every scene change felt like turning the page of a storybook illustrated by someone who had never heard the word “restraint.”
The production uses light with an almost painterly intelligence. The cold blues and silvers of a Russia under siege give way, slowly and deliberately, to the warmth of amber and gold as Anya moves west toward freedom and the possibility of herself. It is visual storytelling of the highest order, you would understand the emotional arc of this show without a single lyric, just by watching how the light moves.
The costumes deserve their own standing ovation. Each gown, each military coat, each feathered Parisian confection spoke of a creative team in love with their world. The Romanov-era ball scenes are jaw-dropping, a swirl of ivory, gold, and midnight blue that makes you reach for a breath you forgot to take. And yet the show never allows spectacle to overshadow story. Every element of the design serves the emotional truth of each moment.
Stars Who Own Their Moment
A musical this sweeping requires a cast of extraordinary range, people who can carry the weight of history in one breath and make you laugh with the next. This production has exactly that, and then some.
Georgina Hopson
Playing Anya, Hopson is nothing short of a revelation. From her very first moments on stage — uncertain, searching, fierce — she commands every inch of the Sydney Lyric with a presence that feels both effortless and meticulously crafted. She brings a luminous vulnerability to the role that makes you fall for Anya completely. This is a star-making performance, and Sydney got to witness it at the very beginning.
- Journey to the Past
- In My Dreams
- Once Upon a December
- Close the Door
“Her rendition of Journey to the Past stopped time. The theatre fell utterly still, and by the final note there was not a dry eye in the house.” Standout Moment: Once Upon a December, a masterclass in restraint and raw emotion delivered with breathtaking beauty.
DMITRY
Robert Tripolino
The charming con man with a conscience, Tripolino plays Dmitry with an irresistible swagger that slowly, beautifully cracks open to reveal something far more genuine. His chemistry with Hopson is electric, and their love story feels entirely earned rather than scripted. ♪ My Petersburg & Learn to Do It
VLAD
Rodney Dobson
The lovable ex-aristocrat provides both comic relief and unexpected heart. Dobson’s timing is impeccable, and every scene he shares with Rhonda Burchmore crackles with a delightful energy that had the audience roaring. ♪ Land of Yesterday & Quartet at the Ballet
GLEB
Joshua Robson
The musical’s antagonist is not a villain, he is a man trapped between loyalty and conscience, and Robson plays that tension with an intensity that makes him one of the most compelling people on stage. His scenes with Hopson are taut, thrilling, and morally fascinating. ♪ Still & The Neva Flows
COUNTESS LILY
Rhonda Burchmore
A showbiz legend doing what showbiz legends do, stealing every scene they inhabit. Burchmore’s Countess Lily is glamour incarnate, hilarious, warm-hearted and utterly scene-commanding. She brought the house to laughter more times than I could count. ♪ The Countess and the Common Man
THE DOWAGER EMPRESS
Nancye Hayes AM
Australian theatre royalty, and every second of it earned. Hayes plays the Dowager Empress with a quiet, aching dignity that is almost unbearable in the best possible way. When she and Hopson share the stage together, the air in the theatre changes. Something profound and real passes between them. ♪ A Nightmare / Farewell Gloves & Once Upon a December (Reprise)
Songs That Live Inside You
If you grew up with the 1997 animated film, you will feel the first familiar notes of Once Upon a December like a hand reaching into your chest. It is one of the most extraordinary experiences live theatre can offer, a song you have carried in your memory for decades, suddenly made flesh and full and three-dimensional on a stage in front of you. I was completely undone.
But this score is far more than nostalgia. Songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, the Tony Award-winning team behind Ragtime, created an entire world of new music for the stage that expands and deepens every character. Journey to the Past is the show’s great anthem, and Hopson delivers it with such conviction that it becomes something approaching a personal declaration of intent. My Petersburg is an Act One highlight that fizzes and propels with the energy of a city on the edge of history. And still, Gleb’s haunting meditation on loyalty and doubt, is one of those rare musical theatre moments that makes you question your assumptions about who the villain actually is.
The show’s emotional peak, however, belongs to the quiet reprise of Once Upon a December shared between Hayes and Hopson in Act Two. When the Dowager Empress and Anya face each other across the weight of everything lost and everything possible, and that melody rises again, the theatre becomes cathedral-still. That moment alone is worth every ticket in the house.
“A standing ovation, without question. Anastasia the Musical is the must-see theatrical event of 2026 — romantic, dazzling, heartbreaking, and alive with the kind of magic that only live theatre can conjure.”
ANASTASIA THE MUSICAL
Sydney Lyric Theatre, 55 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont
Season: April – 18 July 2026
Bookings: ticketmaster.com.au
