Annie

Set in the 1930‘s during the great depression, Annie is determined to find her parents who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of a New York City Orphanage that is run by the cruel, embittered Miss Hannigan. With the help of the other orphans Annie escapes from the orphanage, but is soon returned. Her luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas at the home of billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. 

Two young girls were playing the role of Annie on alternate nights, Poppy Dodsworth and Grace Hollingsworth and on the performances when they weren’t Annie they played the part of Evelyn, one of the orphans. At the performance I attended it was Grace Hollingsworth that played Annie. I must say that she was amazing. She oozed confidence, had such great stage presence and was every inch the optimistic, strong-willed, yet friendly and sensitive little girl. Her superb singing of ‘Maybe’ and ‘Tomorrow’ was just perfect and so effortlessly delivered - it was truly an absolutely delightful and captivating performance. As Oliver Warbucks, Michael Bailey ideally captured the powerful, decisive and wealthy businessman traits of the character whilst later becoming a sensitive father figure and his empathy towards Annie was so touching especially evident when singing, with Annie, ‘I Don’t Need Anything But You’. Eleanor Webster was so elegant, calm and businesslike as Warbuck’s secretary, Grace Farrell. She was so natural, had a lovely rapport with Annie, Oliver and the ‘staff’, and had an excellent singing voice. Kathy Smith-Summers excelled as the habitually drunk, utterly outrageous and sometimes ingratiating Miss Hannigan and her splendid singing of  ‘Little Girls’ extremely epitomised her feelings towards the orphans! Her disreputable, flashy brother, Rooster Hannigan, was well portrayed by Cole Owen as was the sexy, sassy Lily St. Regis by Korina Steed. The singing and dancing in ‘Easy Street’, along with Miss Hannigan, was splendid as was the characterization of Annie’s long lost parents, Mr. & Mrs. Mudge. Very good support came from Andrew Bailey (Drake), Kevin Allen (Roosevelt), Tony Wain (Bert Healy), Sarah Evans, Al Owen, Janet Wain as the harmonious Boylan Sisters and I loved the singing of ‘Tomorrow’ by Roosevelt’s Cabinet members (Thomas Bailey, Jean Bailey, Tony Wardle, Duncan Smith and William Woodroffe). There are really too many other named characters to name them all but they all contributed admirably to the whole performance as did the Ensemble. The orphans, Grace Evans, Daisy Dodsworth, Shannon Hughes, Evie Sheldon, Freya Taylor, Macy Owen, Amelia Hughes, Ruby Smith plus either Poppy Dodsworth or Grace Hollingsworth were absolutely wonderful. They were so enthusiastic, so delightful, so talented and so disciplined and all of their routines were just great. Last, but by no means least, there was a very ‘Special Guest Star’ in the form of Monty (Sandy). Monty is an 8 year old Lhasa Apso/Jack Russell cross and he was just so delightfully adorable and so obedient - he never put a paw wrong!! The scenery was simple but I especially loved the beautifully painted ‘Art Deco’ back flats with a walkway behind a lovely balustrade which represented the interior of Oliver Warbuck’s house. The props were first-rate and the hard working stage crew were certainly kept very busy! Lighting was good and the in-house costumes were outstanding. One very small issue for me however, was that whilst the orchestra was excellent, sadly at times, their ‘exuberance’ over shadowed some of the dialogue and singing. Annie is such a fun filled show and it was obvious that everyone on stage was enjoying every moment. Congratulations to Alison, Trudy and Olivia, (the production team) and to everyone else involved in producing this super show.

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