Annie Jnr

I was warmly welcomed on arrival and had an opportunity to talk with the Director at the end of the performance. This is a youth group, started by Abigail Overall in 2013 with the ages in this production ranging from 3 years to 18 years. This junior version of the well known and much loved musical, Annie, was performed with great enthusiasm by a very large cast of 50- what a challenge for the 7 chaperones !

The set, alternating between the orphanage, New York streets, NBC studio and Oliver Warbuck’s mansion was fairly simple but very effective and congratulation to all the scenery team. Stage Manager, Adam Littlewood and backstage crew did a sterling job of changing the sets and moving props on and off stage.

Sound and lighting, courtesy of Braintree Arts Theatre was good and I especially liked the lighting used very effectively as the backdrop to ‘Tomorrow’.

All the characters in this production impressed with their American accents, which they maintained throughout. All the songs, especially by the large chorus, were delivered with such enthusiasm and obvious ability.

Megan Watson starred as Annie and rapidly became confident in this challenging role. She had a lovely singing voice and worked well with the other girls in the orphanage all of whom played their roles really well. Kate, played by Indiana Ashworth, Tessie, played by Eriden Lyons, Duffy, played by Bethan Clandfield, July, played by Araya Lyons and Pepper, played by Holli Dixey took to their characters with great skill and enthusiasm. And, of course, I must mention Molly, played by Bella Strong, aged 6, who really won over the hearts of the audience. Annie and the orphans really impressed when singing “Hard Knock Life” which can be a difficult song to sing well.

The oldest cast member was Maddie Collett,aged 18, who played Miss Hannigan. She came over as so mean and spiteful but perhaps could have been a little more flamboyant in the role. Nevertheless, an excellent performance by Maddie. I enjoyed Oscar Brown’s interpretation of Rooster, who came over as nonchalant but scheming and, with his ditzy girlfriend, Lily, played by Daisy Dixey, they were well cast and worked really well together.

Other key roles were taken by Phoebe Kiddle/ Fran Larkin, as Grace Farrell, Tristan Williams as Mr Oliver Warbucks and Casper Lawler as President Roosevelt. Tristan was delightful as Mr Warbucks, paired very sensitively with Grace and Casper did well as a wheelchair bound President with some great facial expressions.

In truth, every member of this cast was so enthusiastic and undertook their respective roles with such confidence and obvious enjoyment.

Excellent use was made of the stage area and the choreography by Saffron Hewitt and Natalie Nevin was innovative and involved everyone on stage. No mean feat considering how young some of the children were! I was very impressed with how well rehearsed they had all been.

Congratulations to the costume team, Jessie Gilliard, Abigail Overall and Emily Littlejohn, for the delightful period appropriate costumes which added greatly to the effect on stage.

Well done, Abigail and the assistant directors for your vision and creativity in staging this production and patience in working with such a big cast of very young children. Everyone involved in any way can be rightly very proud of what the group has achieved.

This production was a big hit with the audience, many of whom, I suspect, had children in the production !

I enjoyed this very much and again congratulate everyone involved in any way.

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