Annie

Regular readers of my reviews will know that Annie always makes me happy and this production was not going to disappoint me.  In fact I would go so far as to say that it was one of the best productions of the show that I have seen for a long time.

Amazingly, I think that there were between 60 and 70 under 18s on the Floral Hall stage, which is not that big, and the production team will surely have had their hands full.  Having said that, the entire cast did themselves, and the society, proud.  A full house was also pretty happy when we saw it.

Daisy Waite was a super Annie who made her presence felt from the word go.  Her orphan friends were also terrifically enthusiastic and did well to stay quiet for the half an hour or so they spent on stage before the show proper started.

I really enjoyed Macsen Sherer as Oliver Warbucks and, as he has grown in confidence over the years, he now has a very good stage presence.  He excelled in NYC and his small scenes with Annie were lovely.

The part that can always stand out is Miss Hannigan and Beth Hunter was excellent in the role, not overdoing things and belting out her numbers with great confidence.  There were strong performances by Connor Wilson as Rooster and Alice Jordan as Lily St. Regis and Megan Tudor was also very likeable as Grace Farrell.  Sandy the dog had a good show as well!

It was hard at times to realise that this was a cast of youngsters, no more so than in the Cabinet scene which was probably the funniest I have witnessed.  The skills of the actors in the scene, including a hilarious Toby Sands (who also played Bert Healy) and an enjoyable Owen Robinson (Roosevelt) were such that no-one went over the top and we were all laughing our heads off – superb.

The choreography was simple and very effective and the costumes were fine.  If I have a negative it is that, at times, some of the higher notes in the music were not reached but, generally, the cast coped well.

Of course, I must be careful not to go over the top here.  So I’ll only say one more thing - this was a wonderful show.

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