Lovable ‘Annie’
“Annie” may have as little insight about F.D.R. and the Great Depression as the popular comic character that inspired it, but the musical’s latest national tour is as cheery as the New Deal must have seemed to Americans standing in breadlines.
Director-lyricist Martin Charnin has assembled an especially strong cast – particularly the best tour ensemble of child actors this critic has seen in umpteen returns of the 1977 Tony Award-winning show.
As tours go, the design is gratifyingly fully dressed, with an evocative line-up of photos for the Bert Healy Radio Hour second act opener and, of course, a replica of the “Mona Lisa” that billionaire Oliver Warbucks borrows from The Louvre. Best of all, Conrad John Schuck as Daddy Warbucks and winning Marissa O’Donnell as Annie capture the unflagging optimism and charm of Charles Strouse’s music.
Right from the famous opening New York orphanage scene, audiences will know that they are – to borrow from Charnin’s lyrics – “gonna like it here.”
All six young actresses playing Annie’s fellow “inmates” at the poorly-run institution kick high and deliver the orphans’ signature song “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” with strong, confident voices and uncommon poise.
Kudos go out for Casey Whyland’s expansiveness as Tessie, and Amanda Balon’s savvy and sarcasm as Molly. The performers’ vigorous complaints about hot and cold mush may combine humor and genuine concern, but the orphanage and Hooverville scene beneath the Brooklyn Bridge do provide timely comment in a time of increasing child hunger and family bankruptcies.
Part of what makes these scenes and others compelling, in what is sometimes a furiously hopeful musical, is the impressive work of Marissa O’Donnell as Annie.
While some children have screamed or loudly sailed through “Tomorrow,” O’Donnell builds her rendition from initial good feeling to infectious optimism. More importantly, she looks and sounds as though she is a serious young performer trying to capture the spirit and unwavering inner strength that make Annie distinctive rather than a fame-centered up-and-comer intent on showing off large pipes and high energy. Unlike so many others who have played the role, O’Donnell is not likely to be a one-shot talent.
Conrad John Shuck, who has played Daddy Warbucks on Broadway as well as Buffalo Bill to Reba McIntyre’s title sharpshooter in “Annie Get Your Gun,” demonstrates full authority as the influential entrepreneur impatient to re-open his factories.
His transformation from business-obsessed magnate to caring would-be father and romantic suitor (the latter to his adoring personal secretary Grace Farrell) is totally persuasive. Shuck calls on Jewish presidential advisor Bernard Baruch for counsel and summons Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis to preside over his adoption of Annie with equal ease.
Alene Robertson sings more heartily than many Miss Hannigans, though her meanness toward the orphans often seems understated. Scott Willis does well dancing birdlike as her scheming brother Rooster in the snappy “Easy Street.”
Julie Cardia, previously an understudy but now MacKenzie Phillips’ replacement as his partner in crime Lily St. Regis, ought to be more conniving. Elizabeth Broadhurst has all of Grace’s good-natured feeling for Annie and romantic sensibility with Warbucks. Allan Baker brings proper gusto to F.D.R.
Charnin does well with all of the musical’s ensemble numbers, especially the radio hour, which includes the humorous touch of having Fred McCracken’s ventriloquist dummy flirt with one of the advertisement-singing Boylan Sisters.
Until Warbucks met the red-haired heroine, as a tender Strouse-Charnin song and its title observe, “Something Was Missing.” By contrast, the latest “Annie” brims with charm and high spirits for adults and children alike.
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