The Croswell continues to baffle me.
Every nuance, every gesture, every costume, and every single character in their 2025 Broadway season debut of Anastasia is pure, regal magic I just can’t believe how much detail, heart, and talent went into this glorious production. Only rivaled by the previous season’s stunning Cabaret, this might genuinely be the best production to come out of Michigan’s Oldest Theater yet. As I said, the ensemble is as stunning as the main cast, with the main trio of the stunning Aubrie Lauren, the incredible Maxwell Lam, and the incomparable Jeffery King almost a perfect mirror of the 1997 Don Bluth animated classic. The trio are seemingly born to play these characters. And that majesty can be found in all aspects of the set and characters, with Keith Holloway, Marty Flake, Sabriyah W. Davis. Leo Babcock, Rachel Slupe, Conner Raymond and a myriad of other production stars coming together to make director Stephen Kiersey’s incredible show together with a level of depth rarely seen off the Broadway stage, if anywhere. It was phenomenal to see a cast of my friends and peers put on the best performances of their careers thus far. People like Ja’vaughn White, Mitchell LaRoy, Joshua Egnatuk, Hallie Yuen, Libby Pfifer, Briella York, Jonah Hiatt alongside a remarkable lot of others make absolutely every scene pop and ever character a complex experience. Absolutely stunning and a moment I will never forget. Nether will you.
Allow me to share another, more personal reason why this wonderful show has resonated with me so well. Recently, I have been thinking about the concept of personal responsibility and what it means to be a just human being. With so much cruelty and strife in the world right now, it is extremely easy for anyone to lose sight of who they truly are in the pursuit of what they think they know or what they don’t know. While these lapses are not often as prolonged or intense as the one faced by Anya/Anastasia(Aubrie Lauren), every single character grapples with their own identity in one point in the story. Dimitry(Maxwell Lam) struggles with his selfish desires versus his own humility. In a comical yet true way, Vlad(Jeffrey King) and Countess Lily(Love Ruddel) confront their headstrong stubbornness in order to try to love and live for one another. Glab(Brian Jones) is torn between duty and family versus forgiveness and acceptance. Even the Dowager(Mary Rumman) regrets being blind to the truth because she lacked faith that hope still exists. Hope always exists, Comeuppance, justice, or even equity might never come, but hope always exists in ways we only achieved by looking within ourselves and finding just who we want to be, forgiving those who can’t do the same for us. In fact, being a part of The Croswell family has made me realize how much I want to love the world and to not hate anyone, to be temporarily angry perhaps, but not bitter or spiteful because we all make mistakes when we lose sight of who we truly are. We all lose ourselves every now and then. The people who claim they don’t have either never lived or are trying to sell us something.
That is the true beauty of Anastasia. That is the true beauty of The Croswell.
It makes me want to become the love it has given me.
No better discovery than that.
Now through May 18th.
Calm and Cultured 