Learn To Do It - Anastasia Original Broadway Cast Recording

no copyright infringement intended. all music is Copyright 2017 by Anastasia Cast Album LLC

[marissasucks]

lyrics:

ANYA (spoken)
How do you become the person you forgot you ever were?

VLAD (spoken)
Take a deep breath
Close your eyes
And imagine another time
Another world

VLAD
You were born in a palace by the sea

DMITRY
A palace by the sea

ANYA
Could it be?

VLAD
Yes, it’s so
You rode horseback when you were only three

ANYA
Horseback riding? Me?

DMITRY
Horse’s name

VLAD
Romeo
You threw tantrums and terrorized the cook
Ha!
How the palace shook

DMITRY
Charming child

VLAD
Wrote the book
But you’d behave when your father gave that look

DMITRY
Imagine how it was
Your long forgotten past

DMITRY & VLAD
We’ve lots and lots to teach you and the time is going fast

VLAD (spoken)
Let’s see you walk
Head up
Regal bearing
(sung)
Now shoulders back and stand up tall
And do not walk, but try to float

ANYA
I feel a little foolish
Am I floating?

DMITRY
Like a sinking boat

VLAD
You give a bow

ANYA
What happens now?

VLAD
Your hand receives a kiss

DMITRY & VLAD
Most of all remember this

VLAD
If I can learn to do it
You can learn to do it

DMITRY
Something in you knows it

DMITRY & VLAD
There’s nothing to it

VLAD
Follow in my footsteps
Shoe by shoe

DMITRY & VLAD
You can learn to do it too

DMITRY
Now elbows in and sit up straight
And do not slurp the stroganoff

ANYA
I never cared for stroganoff

VLAD
She said that like a Romanov

DMITRY
The Samovar

VLAD
The caviar

ANYA
Dessert and then goodnight?

DMITRY & VLAD
Not until you get this right

VLAD
If I can learn to do it

DMITRY
If he can learn to do it

VLAD
You can learn to do it

DMITRY
You can learn to do it

VLAD
Pull yourself together

DMITRY & VLAD
And you’ll pull through it

VLAD
Tell yourself it’s easy

DMITRY & VLAD
And it’s true
You can learn to do it too

VLAD (spoken)
Who is your great grandmother?

ANYA (spoken)
Queen Victoria.

VLAD (spoken)
Great-great grandmother?

ANYA (spoken)
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

VLAD (spoken)
Your best friend is?

ANYA (spoken)
My little brother Alexei.

DMITRY (spoken)
Wrong. Your best friend is -

ANYA (spoken)
I know who my best friend is.

DMITRY (spoken)
What a temper.

ANYA (spoken)
I don’t like being contradicted.

DMITRY (spoken)
That makes two of us.

VLAD (spoken)
Continuing on.

ANYA
I’ve had it
And I hate you both
I’m sorry that we ever met
I’m hungry
And I’m frightened
And I’m only human
Don’t forget
I don’t remember anything
Get out and let me be

VLAD
Anya, darling
Look at me
We're all frightened
Well, slightly, now and then
Shall we start again?
Take a breath
Count to ten
You have courage
And strength you barely know
So blow that little nose
And dry those pretty eyes
A princess like Your Majesty can do this if she tries
Ready?

DMITRY
Set

ANYA
Go

VLAD
Now here’s your great-aunt Olga

DMITRY
How she frolicked
On the Volga

ANYA
Oh!

VLAD
Your distant cousin Vanya
Loved his vodka

DMITRY
Got it, Anya?

ANYA
No.

VLAD
The Duke of Oldenburg was short

DMITRY
Louise of Baden

ANYA
Had a

DMITRY
Wart

VLAD
Count Sergei

DMITRY
Wore a feathered hat

VLAD
I hear he’s gotten very fat

ANYA
And I recall his yellow cat

VLAD
I don’t believe we told her that

DMITRY & VLAD
If you can learn to do it

ANYA
If I can learn to do it

DMITRY & VLAD
He can learn to do it

ANYA
You can learn to do it

DMITRY & VLAD
Pull yourself together

ALL
And we’ll pull through it

VLAD
Tell yourself it’s easy

ALL
And it’s true

DMITRY & VLAD
You can learn to do it

ANYA
Nothing to it

ALL
You can learn to do it

ANYA
The caviar
The stroganoff
The Samovar
The feathered hat
The cousin drank
The Duke was short
And here a wart
And there a cat
The horse’s name was Romeo
So tell me something new

VLAD & DMITRY
Ha!

ANYA
Ah!

ALL
You can learn to do it too

[thempress-ro]

I actually love Anya's outburst, I feel it really captures the Anastasia in her.


Anastasia was known for being a little bit of a hell-raiser and having a temper, history documents it pretty well. The son of the court physician said that, "she undoubtedly held the record for punishable deeds in her family, for in naughtiness she was a true genius."

[castleboi]

Personally, I kind of like the little freak-out she has in this song. It brings a bit more of that fear that she mentioned in Journey to the Past into her character, and that's kind of nice.

[katienorthup]

"Like a sinking boat" lol my favorite change from the animated movie!!

[Yazmarohma]

Oh my God! The actor playing as Dimitri is on spot! I mean the voice, the looks he is exactly like the Dimitri in the movie.

[kristaalexander]

*finally gets out of hamilton* I'm free! I'm free! *sees this* dangit.

[zackstark]

3:17 "I don't believe we told her that" Love that Line

[Ash-hzzo]

I actually like the part where she freaks out and gets upset, I feel like it is really needed, if you remember in the beginning of the song when they are talking about her tantrums, this really helps show that side of her, the part that they were talking about in the beginning.

[sumirerin]

Everyone's upset about the part where Ana gets overwhelmed and freaks out, and while at first I was also quite taken aback as I was used to the lighthearted fun version from the movie as well, I actually prefer it being there. To me it makes sense for her to get so frustrated, PTSD and circumstance aside, they're feeding so much information to her, no stops, quite literally critiquing her every move and action in order to help her play the role of royalty. I feel like anyone would eventually get annoyed. She isn't whining, she's telling the guys to give her space, rather than just going along with everything they tell her to do like some sort of puppet, "I'm only human, don't forget!" and besides, once Vlad helped calm her down she did give a very determined, "Go!" if anything it helps to show her resilience and strong resolve. Furthermore I found it a little bothersome that in the movie once Vlad and Demetri talked her into coming with them at the beginning, Ana just went along with them with little to no qualms.
But of course, I love both the songs and everyone's allowed their own opinions, I just thought I'd put my 2 cents in on the matter

[Thundernoob]

I actually like how the instruments play to match the characters words. Especially when Anya gets angry

[danacody]

This movie was literally my childhood, I must have listened to "Once Upon a December" a thousand times... I think I actually wore out my VHS. I saw the musical this past weekend and all of the changes made sense. They made the distinct decision to take out the more unbelievable bits (Rasputin a la bat demons and curses) and replace them with history, and it works. It gives a beautiful depth to the story and deals with the PTSD that Anya must have felt and adds a level of danger to an older crowd. While I will still love and watch the original, this new vision both brings up feelings of nostalgia and the excitement of not knowing exactly what will come next.

[jazmynbloomfield-nishimura]

People, art is made to be interpreted in many forms. You cannot expect an ANIMATED movie to be the exact same as a STAGED musical. I would be too hard for some scenes.

Personally, I prefer the musicals (from the cast album). It is closer to historical accuracy and takes more time to explore the characters.

PLEASE STOP HATING BECAUSE OF DIFFERENT ART FORMS

[stayseelynne]

This reminds me of "to be a princess" from that one Barbie movie

[carlycall]

This is one of my favorite songs from the animated movie.

[emmag]

christy's little "ah!" is so cute

[Hufflepuffozian]

I only saw the animated movie but I really like the outburst they put in during this song. They’re giving Anya all this information not knowing to either themselves or Anya that she’s the lost princess. And since she has no memory of being a princess of course they ts a lot to take in at once so she’s bound to feel overwhelmed and have an outburst

[mariavictoriajaunsolo]

The ones who dislike this video didn't learn how to do it!

[LittleOxfordSt]

I really appreciate how in this rendition it’s much clearer that Vlad is manipulating Anya just as much if not more than Dmitry. At least Dmitry has his “change of heart” - we don’t get that same growth from Vlad. In the original movie it’s easy to dismiss him as a jovial rotund man with a taste for finer things, a bit of a scoundrel but not seriously dangerous, the delivery of his pep talk to Anya after she freaks out really solidifies that (at this point at least) he still only really sees her as a lottery ticket and not as a young woman with her own autonomy and agency.

[sleepysal]

I love Anastasia so much, it's the first Broadway show I've ever seen, it made me so happy

[followerofChrist]

It’s emotional and heartwarming to see all my favorite 90’s films come to the stage. I noticed that they are much slower in tempo than the originals. Same with Hunchback, Prince of Egypt, and others.