The touring of production of “Annie” currently showing at Centennial Hall features a strong cast, but the show is stolen by a select few.
Miss Hannigan, played by Lynn Andrews, and her motley crew of orphans managed to earn laughs and applause from the audience throughout their opening night performance.
Andrews carried the show with her despisal of the titular character and her desire for a life outside of the lot she has been given. Her feature song, “Little Girls,” was strong and eccentric with choreography well suited to the song.
Overall, Andrews kept her portrayal of the antagonist classic, channeling the likes of those before her such as Carol Burnett.
The orphans upstaged Annie when they were on stage together. They managed to win the hearts of their audience while making a concerted effort to make Miss Hannigan miserable.
During “It’s The Hard-Knock Life,” one of the young actresses shined with her impression of Miss Hannigan. “It’s medicine!” she exclaimed as she pretended to take another swig of her imaginary bottle of alcohol.
Annie, played by Issie Swickle, was a relatively confused character, unsure whether she was supposed to fluctuate between a mother figure, optimistic child or a young go-getter. Her roles became further muddled when she declared her need to find her parents, but later told Daddy Warbucks that she would love to have him adopt her.
The young actress playing Annie had her moments, such as the end of the show when Annie and Daddy Warbucks, played by Gilgamesh Taggett, embraced each other and proclaimed they loved one another.
Taggett managed to keep the audience entertained for the portions of the show in which Andrews’ character was absent. He beautifully exhibited the heartbreak his character felt upon the discovery that Annie wished to find her real parents, and even further so when they arrived on scene.
Furthermore, Taggett was able to make the audience laugh when he made purposeful in-character flubs, such as trying not to swear in front of Annie or when he stated to a colleague on the phone that he was unavailable that evening as he had a date with a 10-year-old girl. A fact that Annie corrected him on and he apologized stating over the phone that she was 11.
Annie’s strongest moment came when she discovered what really happened to her parents and after getting over the news she proclaimed, “So, who the heck are Mr. and Mrs. Mudge?”
The show had curtain ten minutes late, and was followed by a five-minute overture. Although the pit orchestra did a superb job the entire performance, a lengthy overture without any action on stage is not ideal for a production geared toward children.
The script, proclaimed as the original, relied heavily on depression-era propaganda that stems from the comics. The character of Franklin D. Roosevelt, president at the time, made several appearances in the second act and in the first act an entire song was dedicated to explaining the lives of those in Hoovervilles and their disdain for President Hoover.
As expected, the character of Sandy managed to steal everyone’s hearts, because what is more adorable than a dog popping out of a gift box wearing a bow?
Overall, the touring production was carried by a stellar ensemble of the young orphan girls and the leads all but stole the show from the titular character.
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