Annie Jr.

I think everyone loves the musical Annie derived from the comic strip character “Little Orphan
Annie” and here we had the Junior version performed by Priory Players Youth which was
excellent.
It is not easy for any youngsters to perform such an iconic musical as this, but the young
members here pulled it expertly off.
In the title role we had Ruby Sadler who delivered the goods with ease, she was nothing short
of excellent and managed to keep up her character all the way through without dropping her
accent or her vocal abilities.
It is not easy singing to backing tracks even for seasoned performers, but all the youngsters
here managed to give it their all, never missing an entrance, a key change, or a dance break.
The part of Oliver Warbucks is a multi-faceted one which again for an adult to play would not be
an easy ride, but Seb Falconer performed it well and made everyone believe in him
I think we all love Miss Hannigan, whether it be played by a woman or a man, she is a total lush
and it is obvious her first love is the Gin bottle, I have seen some performers do this part and
they have rolled around the stage to give the appearance that she is drunk and that does not
always work. Isla Cook was superb, she was able to give the right appearance of this misjudged
lady. Isla sang the song “Little Girls” and I think she had really looked at the words to be able to
deliver it as she did.
Another character in this piece is that of Grace Farrell, the PA to Oliver Warbucks, one which I
believe she is secretly in love with Oliver. Although Grace Welburn may not have played her
character as one who is indeed in love with her boss, she did however play her well. Grace was
able to bring the character to life and did it much to the delight of the audience.
We all know Miss Hannigan has a somewhat wayward brother, Rooster who has a girlfriend, Lily
St Regis, although in the junior version she is called just Lily. Alice Lamb played the role of
Rooster, not an easy one for a girl to play but Alice was to bring him to life and when “he” was
accompanied by Grace Wassell playing Lily they certainly were a force to be reckoned with.
When all three, Hannigan, Rooster and Lily delivered the song, Easy Street it was nothing short
of brilliant, they all sang and danced around the stage to make this number one of the highlights
of the production.
There are many named characters in this piece, and it is not possible to mention everyone but
safe to say they all played their respective characters with ease. One which I will mention is that
of Drake, who is the Butler to Oliver Warbucks, step up Josh Oldroyd who could quite easily
have actually worked in the role for real, he remained the very stiff-upper-lipped member of staff
in this grand household.
In other roles we had Tessie played by Chloe Oldroyd, Imogen Ennis as Kate, Ava Dobson as
July, Izzy Cowie as Duffy, Skye McCann as Pepper, Hollie Roberts as Molly, I must also give a
big mention to Bella who played Sandy who we all know is the dog which is befriended by
Annie. Bella was superb and I am sure stole the hearts of everyone in the audience.
I am sure the production team of Gill Shelton, Malcolm Trigg and Joel Griffin must be extremely
pleased with their finished production, and so they should be, it was outstanding.

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