Review: ANNIE JR. at Goodwood Theatre

Based on the Little Orphan Annie cartoons.

By: Oct. 15, 2022
Review: ANNIE JR. at Goodwood Theatre
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Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 14th October 2022.

Annie Jr. is the shortened adaptation of the popular musical, Annie, created by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse, and Martin Charnin, but has fewer songs, shortens others, cuts a good few scenes, and runs for only an hour. It is based on the Little Orphan Annie cartoon strip that was created by Harold Gray in 1924 for the New York Daily News. The title came from the 1885 poem, Little Orphant Annie, by James Whitcomb Riley. A century later, Gray's story is still just as popular. This production, featuring senior students, aged from 12 to 18 years old, from the Adelaide Theatre Academy, is directed by Billie-Rose Russell, with musical direction by Nikki Long, and choreography by Caley Watt.

The recorded music is provided, so Nikki Long's work is entirely focused on working with the singers, and she has coaxed some fine work from them. Caley Watt's choreography is energetic and particularly effective in big production numbers. Billie-Rose Russell's direction brings out some very good work from the cast and keeps the performance moving along at a brisk pace.

The best-laid plans, and all that. The production uses projections as scenery or, at least, it should have done. The projector, unfortunately, gave up the ghost shortly before the start of the performance. There was, obviously, no time to find another, remove the faulty one, install a replacement, and set everything up again, so it was necessary to continue without it. Sterling troopers that they are, the cast was unfazed by the absence of projected backgrounds and carried on regardless. Most of the audience would never have known that anything had gone amiss.

America is in the Great Depression and Annie is in the New York City Municipal Orphanage, run by the thoroughly horrible, Miss Hannigan. Ever the optimist, Annie is certain that her parents will, one day, come to claim her and take them home with them. She tires of waiting and puts into action her plans to run away to find them, but she is caught and returned.

Billionaire, Oliver 'Daddy' Warbucks, has sent his secretary, Grace Farrell, to select an orphan to come to his home for Christmas and, against the wishes of Miss Hannigan, she picks Annie. Warbucks is bewildered as he expected a boy, but he failed to specify. Annie wins him over, anyway. He introduces her to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, after foiling a plot by Miss Hannigan and her brother, Rooster, adopts her.

Emma Sayers was bright and delightfully cheerful as Annie, offering fine renditions of the familiar songs, Maybe, Tomorrow, and others.

Her nemesis, Miss Hannigan, was played by Bennett giving a strong performance and delivering the song, Little Girls, with just the right touch of bitterness. Jenna Saint plays Miss Hannigan's ex-convict brother, Rooster, and Carla Vannetiello is his assistant, Lily, and they conjure up an hilarious pair of no-good losers. The three plot for Rooster and Lily to pretend to be Ralph and Shirley Mudge, Annie's parents, using a fake birth certificate. Having decided to defraud Warbucks, they sing and dance with zest at the thought of their life ahead in Easy Street.

Oliver Warbucks is played by Thomas Tirrell, initially austere, then softening as Annie wins him over and, gives his character a touch of sadness as he puts a search for her parents into motion, and sings, You Won't Be an Orphan for Long. Lucy Parkes plays his caring assistant, Grace Farrell, adding that gentle touch to the Warbucks household in a warm interpretation of the role.

There is more good work in the ensemble and minor characters, with the production numbers filling the stage with excitement, beginning with the orphans' number, It's The Hard-Knock Life.

The production has two sets of principals and I have no doubt that the others were equally as good as those in the performance that I attended. Congratulations must go to all concerned, not only those who were directly involved in the production, but everybody from Theatre Bugs and the Adelaide Theatre Academy, where these young people have been taught. This was a most enjoyable evening at the theatre. Well done.



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