Annie

With the well-known story of orphan Annie delighting audiences up and down the country, the Pantheon Club also delighted their audiences with their excellent production of this classic.  The opening number, Hard Knock Life introduced us to a very talented team of orphans.  Team Redhead was the team I saw when I visited the show, and each one of them sang, danced, moved and acted with great ease.  Each of them individually, and collectively working as a team, had great stage presence throughout the entire production.   The seven girls who performed in the minor principal roles were all excellent and their talents were not missed in their performance.  Niamh Lee showed an enormous amount of talent in the title role of Annie.  She held her own in every aspect of her performance and her singing and acting were extremely strong. She also handled the dog Sandy (played by Ellie) extremely well.   It is great to see young talent like this getting the opportunity to shine and I’m sure we’ll get the pleasure of seeing her perform again in the future.  Of course, Annie is not just about the kids. The adults in this production displayed a wide range of talent.  We saw the firm businessman Oliver Warbucks played by David Robertson travel through the emotions as he fought to find Annie’s parents.  With great singing and acting, it was a real pleasure to see David in this role.  Reece Cavanagh in the role of Grace Farrell was elegant and sophisticated, and she played the role with great ease, and in particular her singing was top notch.  Drake, played by Raymond Morrison added to the talent and had a great presence on the stage.   Looking after the orphans, the role of Miss Hannigan played by Mel Taylor was excellent, and she really did portray a nasty, mean individual, with excellent singing, acting and dancing displayed throughout all aspects of the role.  Her partners in crime, Rooster, played by Mark Long and Lily St Regis, played by Stephanie Flynn, were well cast in the roles, and took us to Easy Street with great singing and dancing.  The versatility in their acting was shown as they portrayed Annie’s parents, but as we know they didn’t manage to get away with the money!  Bert Healy, played by Kris Morrison and Ronnie (Amy Sloan), Bonnie (Kirsten Innes) and Connie (Sharon Taylor) playing the Boylan Sisters made this scene bright and fun. Roosevelt played by Gordon Downie along with the team in the White House were well cast and it was a great scene with Annie as they all joined in with Tomorrow.    The Star to Be played by Hazel Mears was strong in her singing of NYC, and the ballerina “on pointe” in this scene was quite a highlight.  There were some lovely dramatic moments in this production, and I particularly liked some of the subtilties of the lighting which enhanced the overall production.  With a very strong line up of supporting principals and ensemble we experienced a very entertaining production of Annie.  Under the musical direction of Andy MacDonald there was excellent singing and vocal harmonies. The band was extremely well balanced and throughout the show there was a great sense of light and shade.   Director Graeme Shield brought the best out in the staging of the show, and along with Marina Kelman, the children’s director, ensured that all the children knew exactly what they were doing.  Choreography by Lynsey Kelly was very slick and in keeping with the era.  With a supportive backstage team and crew this entire production flowed well from start to finish. Another Pantheon hit!

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