It seems like where ever you go there is Annie.
- On November 12, 2012 a new Revival of Annie the Musical went on Broadway. It closed. January 5, 2014.
- The Annie Movie Open on Christmas Day 2014
- New Touring Cast of Annie.. http://anniethemusical.com/about.php
In the year of 1933, eleven year old orphan named Annie lives in the Municipal Girls Orphanage, along with Molly (age 6), Kate (age7), Tessie, Pepper, July and Diffy.
Then Grace Farrell, assistant to the billionaire Oliver Warbucks, comes to the orphanage to treat an orphan to come to Warbuck's mansion for Christmas. Annie happens to be in Miss Hannigan's office and Grace asks to take her. Miss Hannigan reluctantly agrees.
Oliver Warbucks comes home to find Annie. He asks Grace to take her to the movies, but Annie persuades him to come too. They gussy her up and enjoyed a fabulous night in NYC.
Back at the orphanage, Miss Hannigan's brother Rooster, and his girlfriend, Lily, pay a visit. She mentions that Annie is staying at a billionaire's house, and they think they could use this situation to their advantage, though they do not yet know how ("Easy Street").
Through different events Annie and Mr. Warbucks connects. Mr. Warbuck decides to adopt Annie. Annie doesn't accept because she believes her real parents are still out there. Mr. Warbucks spends money on a campaign to get her real parents back with a reward.
Rooster and Lily creates a plan of pretending to be her real parents to get the money. Miss.Hannigan gives them all the paperwork and the other half of the locket.
Mr. Warbucks even gets the President on board in helping.
On Christmas Eve, Rooster and Lily arrive pretending to be her parents. Mr. Warbucks believes it, but tells them to come back tomorrow. Rooster left the house saying something that Grace remembers when she stopped at the orphanage.
Christmas morning the president arrives to give Annie the news that her real parents are dead. Miss. Hannigan and the group of orphans came over to Mr. Warbucks. Rooster and Lily showed up, but gets arrested and Annie gets adopted by Mr. Warbucks. The End. :)
I first saw Annie when I was around the age of 10 when it came to Grand Rapids. Then around fifteen I worked backstage on Annie at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre's I did 6 shows a week for 6 weeks and let me tell you, you get sick of the music and show. Annie is a great show, but you have to really love the cast and crew to stay insane because it can get very annoying fast.
I would have loved to see Lila Crawford's performance as Annie. I did get to see the touring cast of Annie last week at Broadway Grand Rapids. Here is my review on it.
Isse Swickle who played Annie, was cute, but I just didn't get Annie from her. Maybe I should give her some slack being her first touring show, according to the playbill. She didn't connect with the characters. I also didn't feel she was vocial sound, but I think she might have been sick because she didn't sound the same as she did on previous shows that was posted on youtube.com. Most importantly I just didn't feel she had the confidence of Annie . She seemed very nervous and quiet. All of her movement didn't have much flow to it, it was more like I have to stand here, now I have to go shake Mr. Warbucks hand and sit here. This could have been the director, Martin Charnin, fault. Who's ever it was it just felt too rehearsed and not natural.
Lynn Andrews, who played Miss. Hannigan, was the best of the cast. She played Miss. Hannigan perfectly. She didn't over due it or under due it. I love Carol Burnett's but I always think she over did it
Mr. Warbucks played by Gilgamesh Taggett, voice was really good and he looked the part, but I didn't feel he played the character well. This could have been because of the director, but the rhythm was off. What I mean by this is when Mr. Warbucks comes home to find Annie he stands around waiting for Annie's lines. He wasn't rushing around being a busy man making alot of Annie's lines not make any sense. There was too many long pauses between the lines.
The rest of cast did a good job. All of the cast had great voices and need a great job with all the songs. My favorite song was "NYC". The set pieces were amazing. It is always nice to see a show with sets. Too many shows now are going towards projections and less sets. I hate that. I am here to see a live show if I want to see projections I will go to the movies.
If Annie the Musical touring group is coming to your city and you have kids I would really recommend getting tickets. How Many Stars Would I Give It: 3 out 5.
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