Broadway’s “Anastasia” will be at IU Auditorium on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The musical, based on the 1997 movie, follows Anya, a young woman in early 1900s Russia who is determined to find a home and her family.
The musical’s first performance was in 2016, though it closed during the pandemic along with the rest of Broadway on March 12.
The tour cast has been practicing since September, Gerri Weagraff said. Weagraff plays the Dowager Empress in the tour cast.
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Weagraff said she feels students, especially young women, will appreciate Anya’s strong personality that she developed through her time as an orphan.
“They will come away seeing Anya as a wonderful role model of a young woman who is determined and courageous, bold and spunky,” Weagraff said. “She follows her heart. She’s ethical.”
She also thinks the audience will identify with the musical’s main themes such as hope and searching for a place of belonging.
“I think, especially coming off this pandemic, we all want and need to feel hope that we will return to normalcy,” Weagraff said.
Weagraff said she once visited Bloomington and IU in 2010 while she was on a Broadway tour of “Fiddler on the Roof.” She said she remembers walking around the campus and eating at a Tibetan restaurant.
“I’m really excited to come back,” Weagraff said.
Patrons can purchase tickets through the IU Auditorium website or at the IU Auditorium Box Office, open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
