“Annie”

[rating=4] It seems that “Little Orphan Annie” has been around for a long time. Most of the theater audiences who run to see the musical “Annie” with a book by Thomas Meehan, Music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, are probably not even aware that it was a comic strip story in the Tribune for many years. Since most of us do not read papers anymore, we probably do not even know what comic strips are, but growing up, the Sunday paper had a section of wonderful comic strips ( some were not funny, but they were still called comic). “Little Orphan Annie debuted in 1924, so it is very near 100 years of storytelling. Of course, she was the main character along with her dog Sandy and Mr. Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

The musical version has been around for many years.” Leapin Lizards!” it opened in 1977. over 40 years ago! In the musical version, Annie ( a charming and quite talented Ellie Pulsifer) lives in an orphanage run by Miss Hannigan ( deftly handled by Stefanie Londino). In the current production, now on the stage at The Cadillac Palace Theatre as part of the Broadway In Chicago season, there are six other girls involved. In other casts, including the production I did some 25 years ago, there were far more girls). These girls are: Riglee Ruth Bryson, Vivianne Neely, Kenzie Rees, Izzy Pike, Valeria Velasco , and the very adorable Bronte Harrison, who you just want to hug. They are wonderful and worth the price of the ticket to watch do their numbers.

As the story goes ( at least the one they use in the musical), Annie is sure that mother and father will see the error of their ways and return to get her. She has a locket that is two parts and is sure that one day they will come and show her their part and voila- a family re-united.

Meanwhile. Oliver Warbucks (Christopher Swan) takes her in for the holidays. He had asked his secretary, Grace ( the lovely Julia Nicole Hunter) to bring home an orphan, expecting a boy. She brings him Annie and over the course of the play, he finds himself loving her and wanting to adopt her. She wants her parents, so Warbucks reaches out with a reward to find them and bring happiness to this young girl, knowing that hs success will mean that she will not be part of his life

Miss Hannigan’s brother, Rooster ( played to perfection by Nick Bernardi) shows up with his girlfriend Lily ( Krista Curry), and  they hatch a plan to pretend they are the missing parents in order t get the money and run. I am sure that you will be able to figure out that despite it being a great plan, the happy ending will be as expected. On a side note, I did this play in Buffalo Grove many years ago. I wanted to play Rooster, but his song “Easy Street” requires a great dancer, so the director cast me as Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( yes, the President) because he is in a wheelchair. I guess she saw my dancing abilities! Meanwhile, I loved that role and found myself wanting to join Mark Woodward who did a fine job.

The ensemble is strong in their roles ( and they do many) but it is the girls who truly shine and hold the audience tightly. There is one other character that everyone loves and that is Sandy ( played to perfection by Addison). I understand that Sandy’s understudy Georgie is pretty swell too.

The songs in this show are many. The best known are “Hard Knock Life”, “Tomorrow”, “Maybe”, “I Think I’m Going To Like it Here”, < the aforementioned “Easy Street”, “Little Girls” and “I Don’t Need Anything But You”. You will leave the theater humming.

“Annie” will continue at The Cadillac Palace Theatre located at 151 West Randolph ( between LaSalle and Wells) thru March 19th with performances as follows:

Fridays    7:30pm

Saturdays  2:00pm & 8:00pm

Show Type: Childrens/ Family

Running Time: 2hrs, 30mins; one intermission

For tickets

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Annie”.

There were a lot of kids in the theater.

What a great way to get kids to the theater!

They loved every second of the two plus hours they enjoyed. Thank you “Little Orphan Annie”