Anna Karenina (musical)

Anna Karenina
1992 Broadway Playbill
Music	Daniel Levine
Lyrics	Peter Kellogg
Book	Peter Kellogg
Basis	Leo Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina
Productions	1992 Broadway

Anna Karenina is a musical with a book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by Daniel Levine. Based on the classic 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. Directed by Theodore Mann, the Broadway production opened on August 26, 1992 at the Circle in the Square Theatre and ran for 46 performances. The cast included Ann Crumb in the title role and John Cunningham as Nicolai Karenin.

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 Alexis 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.

After eighteen 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 theatre's small size (by Broadway standards), the staging included a sparse set, an almost bare stage, and only seven members in the orchestra. In addition to Crumb and Cunningham, the cast included Scott Wentworth as Vronsky, Gregg Edelman as Constantin Levin, Melissa Errico as Princess Kitty Scherbatssky, and Jerry Lanning as Prince Oblonsky.