Anna Karenina (musical)

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.

Synopsis
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.

Musical numbers
Prologue: St. Petersburg Train Station 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 night Scene 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
 * Act I
 * On a Train – Anna, Vronsky, Levin, Chorus
 * There's More to Life Than Love – Stiva and Anna
 * How Awful – Kitty
 * Would You? – Levin
 * In a Room – Levin, Kitty, Anna, Vronsky
 * Waltza and Mazurka – Anna, Kitty, Vronsky, Stiva, Chorus
 * Nothing Has Changed – Anna
 * Lowlands – Basso
 * Rumors – Chorus
 * How Many Men? – Kitty
 * We Were Dancing – Vronsky
 * I'm Lost – Anna
 * Karenin's List – Karenin
 * Waiting for You – Anna and Vronsky

Scene 1: Anna's house, three months later 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
 * Act II
 * This Can't Go On – Anna, Vronsky, Karenin
 * Peasant's Idyll – Chorus
 * That Will Serve Her Right – Levin
 * Everything's Fine – Anna and Vronsky
 * Would You (Reprise) – Levin and Kitty
 * Everything's Fine (Reprise) – Anna
 * Only at Night – Karenin
 * Finale – Anna and Chorus

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.

Broadway production
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.

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." Other critics believed the musical's approach to be trivial, including Variety, which called the musical "comic-strip Tolstoy".

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), 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.