Annie

Annie is a Musical based upon the popular Comic strip “Little Orphan Annie”, by Harold Gray with music by Charles Strouse, and lyrics by Martin Charnin from the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 running for nearly six years, winning a Tony Award for Best Musical, It was then revived in 2010 finishing its run in January 2014. The story is about Annie an orphan living in New York during the depression, she dreams of the day her parents will come and collect her and take her home from the Orphanage, then one day she is lucky to find herself spending Christmas in the home of Billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Warbucks decides to adopt Annie, however Annie is still desperate to find her real parents so Warbucks offers to help, but sadly they find Annie's parents have passed away, now Warbucks is able to adopt her and all is well in the world.

 This was an enjoyable entertaining production directed by Graham Cohen with some very talented performers in the cast. Kim Brookfield was very good as the permanently inebriated, hard and tough Miss Hannigan, the orphanage manager and Jane Catterall also gave a very good performance as Grace, Mr Warbucks efficient personal assistant who was also caring and thoughtful. Clive McCoy as Oliver Warbucks gave us the hard headed businessman who had a soft and gentle side when dealing with Annie, and both Jane and Clive had a very good rapport with Annie which is vital for the success of this show. David Wilson as Rooster, and Vicki Wilson as Lily St Regis, produced good amusing performances, working very well together and Barry Heeks as Drake the Butler, Keith Brian as President Roosevelt and Keiron Garlick as Bert Healey all produced nice characterisations in their roles. But the star of the show was Yzabella Heyes as Annie who acted and sang very well indeed, with lots of enthusiasm and maturity, her rendition of the song ‘Tomorrow’ was delightful. Another star and audience favourite was the wonderful dog Dougal handled by Helena Carter, who played Sandy, he behaved very well indeed.  Congratulations and well done should also go to all the children, both orphans and chorus, who appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely throughout the performance. Generally American accents were reasonable, and dialogue and diction could be heard and followed, but I have highlighted when visiting this venue before,  there appears to be a problem with the sound system, as the microphones, cut in and out on occasions and are a little loud at times which distorts the sound. However there were some very enjoyable musical numbers, I particularly enjoyed ‘Easy Street’ performed by Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily, ‘A Hard Knock Life’ and ‘Fully Dressed’ performed by the orphans. They were vocally good and choreography by Lorraine Sullivan complimented and suited these numbers well.  The orchestra conducted by Musical Director Paul Stanley played very well, supporting and accompanying the cast excellently. Scenery was well designed and easily moved for maximum efficiency, enabling quick and smooth scene changes without being obtrusive, well done to Stage Manager Stephen Blundell and his crew, also Scenic Artist Howard Bates and Wardrobe Mistress Wendy Salvage and helpers who’s costumes were colourful, suited the roles and fitted the era well.

Congratulations and well done to Director Graham Cohen, and Production Co-ordinator Jane Harrison for this very enjoyable production and also to all involved including front of house. Thank you for inviting me.

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