| Anna Karenina | |
| Music: | Daniel Levine |
| Lyrics: | Peter Kellogg |
| Basis: | Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina |
| Productions: | 1992 Broadway |
Anna Karenina is a 1992 musical with a book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by Daniel Levine.
Based on the classic 1877 Leo Tolstoy novel of the same name, it focuses on the tragic title character, a fashionable but unhappily married woman, and her ill-fated liaison with Count Vronsky, which ultimately leads to her downfall.
In 1870s Russia, Anna Karenina is a virtuous woman married to a government official 15 years older than she. Anna falls in love with the handsome and charming Count Alexei Vronsky, but she is torn by her loyalty to her husband and small son.
Meanwhile, Vronsky had first courted Ekaterina "Kitty" Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky, who chose him over gentleman farmer Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin. When Vronsky falls in love with Anna instead, Kitty becomes ill, and Levin, heartsick, withdraws to his country estate. Kitty and Levin finally declare their love for each other.
Anna's choice of love over duty leads to tragedy: Her affair with Vronsky is revealed, and she is shunned; eventually, she throws herself in front of an oncoming train.
| Character | Broadway (1992)[1] | |
|---|---|---|
| Anna Karenina | Ann Crumb | |
| Konstantin Levin | Gregg Edelman | |
| Alexei Karenin | John Cunningham | |
| Kitty Alexandrovna | Melissa Errico | |
| Stiva Arkadyevich | Jerry Lanning | |
| Alexis Vronsky | Scott Wentworth | |
| Seryozha Karenin | Erik Houston Saari | |
| Korunsky | Gabriel Barre | |
| Annushka | Darcy Pulliam |
Scene 1: Moscow train station, next morning
Scene 2: – Kitty Scherbatsky's house, later the same day
Scene 3: A ball, a few days later
Scene 4: A small station between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the next nightScene 5: Anna's house in St. Petersburg
Scene 6: Prince Tversky's home, that night
Scene 7: Croquet Lawn, several weeks later
Scene 8: Kitty's house
Scene 9: A small dance in St. Petersburg
Scene 10: On the way home
Scene 11: Anna's house
Scene 12: Vronsky's apartment
Scene 2: Levin's estate and Italy
Scene 3: A villa in Rome
Scene 4: Kitty's house
Scene 5: A hotel in Moscow
Scene 6: Karenin's house
Scene 7: St. Petersburg Train Station
A recording of the musical released on August 7, 2007, stars Melissa Errico as Anna, Gregg Edelman as Levin, Brian d'Arcy James as Vronsky, Jeff McCarthy as Karenin, Marc Kudisch as Oblonsky and Kerry Butler as Kitty.
After 18 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Theodore Mann and choreographed by Patricia Birch, and associate choreographer, Jonathan Stuart Cerullo, opened on August 26, 1992, at the Circle in the Square Theatre. In keeping with the theater's small size (by Broadway standards), the staging included a sparse set, an almost bare stage, and only seven members in the orchestra, with orchestrations by Peter Matz.[2]
Anna Karenina was received poorly by the critics. Time deemed it "earnest, intermittently moving but never quite thrilling", and The New York Times was harsher, calling the show a "series of misperceptions and errors in judgment."[3] Other critics believed the musical's approach to be trivial, including Variety, which called the musical "comic-strip Tolstoy".[4]
The musical ran for 46 performances. It received Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical (Ann Crumb), Best Book of a Musical, Best Score of a Musical, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Gregg Edelman),[5] as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination for Lanning.
In 2006, a version of the Dan Levine, Peter Kellogg musical was produced and performed in Japan. The original Japan cast included Maki Ichiro, Yoshio Inoue, Hitomi Harukaze. A two-DVD set with a length of more than three hours of the Japanese language production is available. There is also a CD of the songs sung in Japanese.