Norwalk High School’s spring musical “Anastasia” will take place this weekend Friday, April 26th and Saturday, April 27th at 7:00 p.m. at the Norwalk Performing Arts Center. Tickets will cost $10 and can be purchased at the door with exact change.
The show “Anastasia” is about the lost princess Anastasia Romanov, who was separated from her family at a young age, attempting to remember her life before the Russian revolution, and trying to reunite with her grandmother and the last living Romanov, Dowager Empress Marie.
The show is being directed by Jacie Ommen, who has been in the performing arts for a majority of her life, giving her plenty of experience to direct this show and bring it to life on the stage.
“My first musical I was 18 months old,” she said. “My dad was a choir director and he was doing the show ‘Cheaper by the Dozen.’”
She went on to say how whenever her father needed small children for his shows, she was there, and how she continued being a part of the performing arts into middle school, high school, and college, where she learned how to be a part of the crew, and eventually moved to directing shows.
“I love musical theater!” she said. “I love the opportunity it gives kids. This is one of those non-graded experiences where you get to work with people and it’s not because you have to because you are in class and your teacher says so.”
Mrs. Ommen’s genuine love for musical theater was very apparent, and the way she talked about her favorite scenes speaks to her excitement.
“I have built a full, turning train, and I’m really excited to see that on stage,” she said. “And then we have a ballet scene that I built auditorium mezzanines, so like balcony seats, to give it kind of the idea that we’re at a ballet.”
But what is a ballet without a proper ballerina? Thankfully, other students at Norwalk High School stepped up.
“Elise (Burnett) is our ballerina on Saturday night because the irony of it is her dance company she is with is performing “Swan Lake” Friday night,” she said. “And she goes ‘I already have the costume. I already have everything I need.’ because the ballet they perform is Swan Lake.”
And because Elise won’t be available Friday, Karlie Latterell will be standing in, also having ballet experience.
When it comes to favorite scenes, the cast had different opinions to Ommen. Like Erick Randall, playing the main antagonist “Gleb,” who spoke about his second song “Still.”
“I just love it, and I think it’s very much a villainous piece, which obviously, playing the villain, makes me feel villainish,” he said.
He also spoke about the reprise of his song “Still,” saying that he gave himself chills while performing it. Grover Fetters had another opinion on his favorite scene, talking about the song “The Land of Yesterday.”
“It has such a creepy vibe to it,” he said. “It is in a minor key, and it is just very well written.”
This version of the musical is not the same as the animated Disney movie. While the villain in the movie is Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Russian mystic and holy man, the villain in the Broadway musical is General Gleb, who is given orders to kill Anastasia.
