Annie

It was a pleasure to return to a production by Wymsical Theatre, with a cast of over 40 youngsters giving their all! Annie is about a young orphan named Annie. After spending her childhood in an orphanage run by the unpleasant, child hating Miss Hanigan, Annie is taken in by billionaire “Daddy Warbucks”. Warbucks begins to search for Annie’s birth parents and publicly offers a reward for coming forward and claiming their child. Such is the talent, two teams were cast, albeit that some of the principals remained the same for each performance.

The stage is deep enough to accommodate an 11-piece band at its rear, behind a New York skyline and each scene was played in front of this quite comfortably, with minimal but effective scenery. On the evening I attended, Rose Cam played Annie with a wistful confidence epitomised by her opening number ‘Maybe’. This was followed by the well- known ‘It’s the Hard Knock Life’ delivered with appropriate attack by Annie and the Orphans. In charge of the orphanage is the child hating Miss Hannigan very well portrayed by Lydia Dimmock. You could feel the malice in her speech whilst mostly but convincingly under the influence!

Annie escapes the orphanage in the laundry basket to find her parents and along the way meets Sandy a lovely stray Labrador and Rose’s relaxed handling of the dog whilst singing  ‘Tomorrow’ was very impressive. However, she is caught and returned to the orphanage where a visit from Grace Farrell assistant to Oliver Warbucks changes everything.  Grace was very well played by Georgie Levine expressing a pleasant authority and later proved to have a very nice voice. One result; Miss Hannigan vents her hatred of ‘little girls’ with great expression.

On arriving  at the Warbucks mansion for Christmas, the staff, all very well dressed, welcome Annie and she meets Oliver Warbucks excellently played by Cameron Morris. Initially somewhat insecure by Annie’s presence – he expected a boy -  I was impressed by the mature, controlled and clear delivery of his dialogue and how quite soon he warmed to Annie and their relationship grew. Back at the orphanage Miss Hannigan’s brother Rooster and his girl-friend Lily visit and with great energy they come together with ‘Easy Street’. Max Price and Ella Hinson introduced their characters well and also in Act 2 when posing as Annie’s long-lost parents, Ralph and Shirley Mudge.

Act 2 opened with the Bert Healy’s radio programme in which Annie appears and Oliver Warbucks announces the reward for finding her parents. Noah Glyde played the upfront show host Bert well and in fact in each of Noah’s roles including Bundles and Perkins, provided great support. The Boylan sisters; Laura Harding, Lily Jepson- Haines and Olivia Simpkin, sang well together. Lily was another with 3 roles in total including Lieut. Ward and Morganthau; all handled well.

Warbucks brings Annie to Washington and meets President Roosevelt, performed with good poise and clarity by Linus Hughes. Annie inspires the President who demands the Cabinet all sing together and this is quite uplifting. Back at the mansion, Warbucks sings ‘Something was Missing’ with Annie and their dance together is endearing. There were numerous other named roles which I enjoyed, including Whizz Byrne as Drake, Ava Stokes as Molly, and Laura Harding as Mrs Greer.

A well-controlled band, choreography that rightly demanded energy and super costumes representing a lot of work I’m sure by the Wardrobe team, Wymsical pulled off another enjoyable production which they should all be pleased with.  

 

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