Annie

Orphan Annie, a pretty redhead , born on October 28th 1922 is therefore eleven years old when our story begins and residing in the New York Municipal Orphanage under the dubious care of the ghastly Miss (Aggie) Hannigan.  Aggie's brother Rooster Hannigan is a criminal con man intent on using Aggie's knowledge of Annie's early life to extract a $40,000 reward from her millionaire benefactor, Oliver (Daddy) Warbucks, in order to find Annie's parents to thus live a life on Easy Street with his Moll, Lily St. Regis.

Imaginatively directed by Sally Jones, musically directed by the inspirational Jamie Cordell with energetic and well performed dance and movement routines by choreographer Katie Leitch, ESOSOC boast a strong production team, an enthusiastic cast boasting some terrific principal players and have the joy of performing on a large, well equipped stage.

Blessed with two full teams of orphan girls, I was privileged to see the team led by Sophie Sharma as Annie. Young Sophie, complete with sumptuous red wig totally owned the show from the very first moment.    Admirably cast as the spirited, tough and resourceful Annie, Sophie is clearly blessed with a natural stage presence and sang her songs with real emotion - plus an excellent New York accent - that will stand her in good stead in the years ahead. Most unusually, I could hear every syllable quite clearly and in such a very young person this is noteworthy.

Her fellow orphans - Molly (Freya Robertson), Alice (Eleanor Hames), Pepper (Harriet Thynne), Kate (Matilda Skyrme), Tessie (Delilah Skyrme), Mary (Tahlia Carr-Stein), July (Luz Turner) and Duffy (Chloe Fegan) - gave sterling support, each playing their various characters with truth and a certain aplomb. "Hard Knock Life" was staged to perfection and all the orphans did themselves proud.

Sarah Trotman was a titan as the awful, drink sodden, Miss Hannigan, with no redeeming features whatsoever. How she milked every drop from this iconic part, giving a professional quality performance. Indeed, she has worked in the profession and that much was quite obvious.

Matching Sarah's majestic performance was Damien De Roche as Oliver Warbucks, oozing natural authority, but displaying typical male awkwardness when confronted with a little girl who had come to stay for Christmas. As he grew to love her - and she to love him - the journey from "tough ruthless billionaire" to becoming a well rounded human being was hauntingly well portrayed. The bond between Warbucks and Annie is the foundation of the whole endearing tale and it grew in strength throughout.

A host of talented performers gave solid backing to these three lead players - Michael Saunders was excellent as the low life con man Rooster, well backed by his moll, Lily St. Regis, played with well observed "tarty loucheness" by Julia Rogers. For my money the spirited trio "Easy Street" is the best song in the show - pleasingly it is reprised - and these two with Aggie, talented artists all, did full credit to this insistent  "zinger" of a tune.

A wonderful chorus scene was the shanty town " Hooverville", played with obvious poverty, close to freezing and starving by the company with aching realism. Excellent police, sound and lighting effects enhanced this scene. This was beautifully real and staged superbly. I also much liked the street corner at St Mark's Place with its busy, busy portrayal of New York's mean streets, especially for the poor and hungry.   "Breezer" as Sandy, the stray dog, saved by Annie's insistence that he was her own dog quite naturally stole the show. Breezer is a most experienced stage production dog, as his programme notes informed us.   Mark Nicholson as Lt. Ward deserves much credit for his portrayal in this scene.

Michelle Radcliffe was the perfect antidote in every way to the horrid Miss Hannigan, giving Grace Farrell a beauty both within and without and receiving my silent cheer as she bested hateful Aggie when taking Annie away for Christmas.

An excellent hired set provided a sumptuous Warbucks mansion complete with servants in green and white and maids in black with white aprons. Costumes in general were of top quality and provided by Lois Hatt, Sue Bracher, Julie Patton and Auriol De Peyrecave. Naturally Warbucks owned the Mona Lisa too, who else!

The distinctly English butler, Drake, was amusingly played by Terry Foster with marvellous disdain for Rooster and Lily as Ralph and Shirley Mudge. Thanks to President F.D. Roosevelt - oozing authority and class by Kevin Stuart - and the unseen FBI!   "Ralph, Shirley" and Aggie duly got their long awaited come uppance in satisfying style. FDR's cabinet were all given highly individual personalities by Tom Allen, Jill Day, Mark Nicholson and Chris Wait singing "Tomorrow" when ordered by Roosevelt and under Annie's "tuition" in varying degrees of dread. A highly effective scene in FDR's office. In real life FDR did indeed have a female member in his cabinet.

Another scene opened Act 2 in the NBC "Hour of Smiles" radio studio and was humorously played with the skilful host Bert Healy AKA Tom Howland. Toothpaste pretty were the three tuneful Boylen Sisters played by Lucy Shippam, Ruth Cheek and Fenella Machin. Helen Margetts gave Fred McCracken and "his" puppet Wacky, lively personalities.

Others who acted with assurance were Nicky Allen as Mrs Pugh, Tracey Brammar as Mrs Greer, Jess Allen as Annette and Amelia Hulbert as Cecille - all members of Warbuck's staff. Philippa Kennedy sang well and looked the part as Star-to-be. Other cameo's were given by Chris Powell as the affable Bundles, Nicola Wood as Sophie and Chris Wait as Judge Brandeis.

Highly effective lighting - design and operation - was by Will Perkins for Show LX and sound by Ollie Cross and James Butchart was equally good.

I would commend the professional quality programme and suggest you enter it in our NODA programme competition for the whole South East area, which is a prestigious award.   I feel a complete list of musical items though would have been helpful.

Overall, the show ran seamlessly with well thought through staging and good stage management under David Nelson and his nimble crew. ESOSOC really hit the heights with this sparkling production.

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