Annie

Having won the District 7 NODA East Award for Best Musical last year with "The Producers", Haverhill & District OS (Centre Stage) had set the bar high for their production of "Annie".  This family favourite had indeed captured the hearts of Haverhill audiences, as every performance was "Sold Out"; and what a performance they gave us!

On my "official" visit Wednesday evening, I discovered from the programme that there were two teams of orphans and two young actresses playing the leading role.  I therefore took the decision to do a second review on the Thursday evening, in order to give a fair and balanced critique, having then seen both teams in performance.

Firstly, I must congratulate David Hart as Director and young Maximillian Murphy, in his debut role as Choreographer, for their innovative take on this musical.  David had designed a set which worked well, using sliding panels to the rear of the stage, with back projected images reflecting the various locations, and a modular unit, first used as Annie's bed in the opening scene which, with different sized tops, was then used to good effect to provide the desks for Miss Hannigan's office at the orphanage, Daddy Warbuck's desk in his 5th Avenue mansion and the presidential desk at the White House (although this did prove a little unwieldy for the stage crew in that particular scene).  With the addition of a chair, or sofa, this was all that was required to set the scene and enabled swift scene changes, keeping the pace slick throughout the performance.  Maximillian had created some imaginative choreography, particularly for the orphans' musical numbers "It's A Hard Knock Life" and "Fully Dressed", the company number "Hooverville" and the various Warbuck servants numbers.  Well done!

Secondly, I have to congratulate all the adult cast and chorus, who had obviously had to endure many hours of repetitive rehearsals with both teams of children and their young leading ladies. However, this had paid off handsomely, as, without exception, their performances were confident, full of vitality and enthusiasm.  Sadly, space won't allow me to name everyone individually, but I would particularly like to commend the following cast:  Steve Murray, who portrayed so well the character of Oliver Warbucks, the wealthy American industrialist in the Great Depression, whose heart is captivated by orphan Annie; Lorraine Mason as his warm-hearted secretary Grace Farrell, who's just a little in love with her boss; Kelly Mepham, who in addition to her role as Producer for the production, gave us an incredibly agile and OTT performance as the gin-swigging Miss Hannigan; Paul Gardiner as her criminally inclined brother Rooster and Jane Baillie as his moll Lily St. Regis - their dance routine during "Easy Street" was a real crowd pleaser!  I enjoyed, too, the opening scene in Act 2, the NBC Radio Studio, which was an uplifiting moment after the rather sad finale to Act 1, when Warbucks promises to find Annie's true parents and realises he's possibly going to lose her.

Well done, too, to the Red and Blue Teams of orphans - they were obviously all enjoying themselves and this shone through in their well-rehearsed and confident performances on both nights.  I was pleased to have had the opportunity to watch both the young stars of the show, in their roles as Annie, as their personalitites gave a different feel to each performance.  On the Wednesday evening, young 12 year old Dara Bevan, in her first ever acting role, was a complete natural.  Her warmth, naivety and lovely pure singing voice was captivating and particularly heart-rending in her solo "Maybe".  On Thursday evening, Amber Brewster gave us a perhaps slightly more contrived, though well-acted portrayal of this feisty and lovable character and although lacking in spontaneity, nevertheless put in a fine performance.  I must also mention Dexter in his role as "Sandy", as he didn't have his own doggy credit in the programme!

As always, Karen Chinery, as Musical Director, had again masterfully demonstrated her skill in bringing a high level of performance to all the musical numbers, both principal and chorus and kept the orchestra well-balanced and supportive throughout.  Similarly, the balance of sound was good, so not a word or note was lost and the lighting crew enhanced the whole performance with their timely cues.  My one small concern was with the costume plot.  Whilst all the principals, servants and orphans costumes were well-chosen and the company scene "Hooverville" was correctly costumed, the outdoor scene "NYC" on the streets of New York City in the depths of winter, saw several of the ladies dressed in summer clothes without the benefit of a warm winter coat and the men in shirt sleeves and waistcoats!  However, this is just a small criticism in an otherwise very high-standard production, evidently much enjoyed by the capacity audiences.  Thank you, Centre Stage.

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