Back in 1997, when animated musical feature film Anastasia was released, rumours about the last Russian Tsar’s youngest daughter having escaped the Bolshevik hit squad were still vaguely plausible.

However, when the musical adaptation premiered on Broadway in 2017, a decade had passed since the final two bodies of the murdered imperial family had been discovered and confirmed by DNA testing.

If this historically informed musical’s songs were more memorable, if its book and lyrics were less weighed down by exposition, and if the romance wasn’t so perfunctory, the fact that Anastasia died in 1917 probably wouldn’t be such a nagging thought throughout its two hours (plus interval).

Despite transporting digital projections, beautiful costumes and, for its Australian debut season, some powerful singing, Anastasia doesn’t ever manage to sweep us away to the land of fairytales, where it’s easy to suspend disbelief.

Georgina Hopson in Anastasia – The Musical. Photo © Jeff Busby

This is surprising given its musical-royalty DNA: composer Stephen Flaherty, playwright Terrence McNally and lyricist Lynn Ahrens have won many major awards, including for their earlier collaboration, Ragtime. Tellingly, the only Tony win for the Broadway production of Anastasia was...