Annie
Information
- Date
- 4th May 2017
- Society
- Hartlepool Stage Society
- Venue
- Town Hall Theatre
- Type of Production
- Musical
- Director
- Jill Jackson
- Musical Director
- Christine Davison
- Choreographer
- Jill Jackson
When the curtains opened on Hartlepool Stage Society’s production of Annie the orphanage was definitely full! 34 orphans filled the stage, overflowing the beds, set well into positions that made the picture, and sang their little hearts out to make a lovely opening scene. Darcie Robinson as Orphan Annie in her debut performance on stage certainly has a talent and is one to be watched for the future. A lovely and accurate voice with good character, confidence, and a pleasant performance meant this role was completed with ease, and she coped so well with a wandering “Sandy” too, well done Darcie. The orphans all played their parts with nice voices and good diction so all lines were heard to the audience, and their enthusiasm and energy was fun to watch in all their scenes. The infamous Miss Hannigan was played by Elizabeth Marshall who portrayed her less dishevelled and drunk than usually but still with menace and a voice that was so well suited with power and gravel that with her acting she gave a great performance.
For me the lack of men in the cast, as many societies find these days, meant some of the chorus scenes missed the warmth of male voices and especially in the cabinet scene when they sing with Annie “Tomorrow”, the usual harmonies weren’t quite the same, though in that scene Peter Rowlands’ version of “Ickes” certainly gave gusto and comedy for him to stand out as the only male cabinet, one of his three roles he played, all carried out well. President Roosevelt played in the wheelchair by Tom Scorer gave a nice warmth to the character, and yet bossy too. The ladies certainly covered well and the chorus numbers were all choreographed nicely, costumes were colourful and coordinated for the scenes, and scene changes were well managed with layers of tabs allowing changes of the hired set to occur smoothly and quietly on the compact stage.
In the Warbucks’ household Louise Parks as Grace and Phil Langridge as Drake gave lovely singing and characters supporting Charles Lambert as the large as life Oliver Warbucks, along with the cameos and chorus servants providing good and lively house scenes. Lovely to see chorus scenes nicely acted too.
A few flickering LXs throughout gave some anxious moments however the show was an enjoyable evening, the music provided by keyboard and drums was excellently played and balanced nicely so never overpowering the voices.Congratulations MD Christine Davison. My first visit to the Town Hall Theatre revealed a very quaint theatre and the enthusiastic audience responses showed they enjoyed their experience too as I had done.
Congratulations to your society for an entertaining evening.
© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.