The Diary of Anne Frank

as Anne Frank
2004

“Lea Michele is extraordinary as Anne [Frank]. This Broadway alum (Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof) exhibits immense versatility in her portrayal. She is just as successful displaying the childish enthusiasm of a thirteen-year-old as she is conveying the budding maturity of a fifteen-year-old. Miss Michele has a wonderful rapport with the rest of the cast and she relates particularly well with Gary Sloan’s Otto Frank ”
-Tracy Lyon

Synopsis

Shortly after the war Otto Frank (Joseph Schildkraut) returns with his former stenographer, Miep Gies (Gloria Jones), to the attic where Mr. Kraler (Clinton Sundberg) had hidden the Frank family and some other Jews from the Gestapo. There Frank discovers the diary kept by his thirteen?year?old daughter Anne (Susan Strasberg). His thoughts fly back to the months they spent there, often in silence lest they give away their whereabouts; to happy moments such as a Chanukah celebration and to bitter ones such as catching a fellow Jew stealing their food. The announcement of Allied landings brings hope of a quick release, but shortly before the liberation their hiding place is betrayed. Anne and the others are sent to the gas chambers. Only Mr. Frank manages to escape. Now he reads the last line in the diary. “In spite of everything,” Anne writes, “I still believe people are really good at heart.” “She puts me to shame,” the still bitter Frank acknowledges. The play was based on the real Anne Frank’s diary (published in English as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl), which had become a worldwide best?seller after the war.

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