Meehan Confirms: Lapine in Talks for ANNIE; Deems Streep Dream 'Hannigan'

As BroadwayWorld has previously reported, producer Arielle Tepper Madover has acquired the production rights for the beloved Tony Award-winning musical ANNIE and will produce an all-new production of it for Broadway in 2012.

Today, BroadwayWorld had the special opportunity to connect with ANNIE's scribe, Thomas Meehan (book writer of such classics as Hairspray, The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Cry-Baby and more), who has confirmed that famed director/writer James Lapine is in talks to direct the new production.  Lapine is best known as the mastermind behind such hits as Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Passion, Falsettos, and Spelling Bee. 

While a deal is not complete yet, Meehan explains that Lapine appealed to him, Tepper and the ANNIE team for the position and all were in agreement that he was the right choice.  While the heart and soul of the ANNIE the world has come to know and love for over three decades will remain in tact, Meehan claims that the show will undergo some "freshening up." 

"It is so wonderful to get a new first class production," says Meehan. "It's been great to have the show play on the road and around the country, but after a while I started to get the sense that it was getting a little stale.  Like with an old apartment that gets a liitle shabby around the edges so you need to freshen it up, that's what we're going to do. It will be a new look at the same show."

As for any leads on a potential Hannigan, Annie and Daddy Warbucks?  "We're going to be casting strong names, for sure, but we have to be careful to let the show be the star.  There's always that challenge as to how a show will play when you have a big star in a role and then they leave.  We want to make sure the show can stay the star."

Still, there is at least one notable exception to this approach - specifically in Meryl Streep, who Meehan deems his "dream" Miss. Hannigan, though he recognizes the longshot of such casting.

As for next steps, a reading with Lapine is being planned for sometime in November.  No additional creative team members have been tapped to date.

What Meehan is especially looking forward to is seeing how his precious show from decades ago will play in this new climate.  He explains: "ANNIE has had longevity because it is about so much more than a girl and her dog.  The politics of the show are important and it is really about how to avoid and get through hard times by staying hopeful.  And that is very relevant in our world right now."

BroadwayWorld will continue to bring you insights on the upcoming revival of ANNIE as the production progresses.

ANNIE features music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, based on the newspaper character "Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray. The original production opened April 21, 1977 at the Alvin Theatre.

"My grandmother took me to see ANNIE over the Thanksgiving holiday when I was eight. It was my first Broadway show," Arielle Tepper Madover commented. "From that moment, I knew that I wanted to work in the theater. The past 30 years have prepared me to produce this show on Broadway and I cannot wait to share it with a new generation of Broadway audiences and with my own children."

ANNIE won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the Grammy for Best Cast Show Album and seven Tony Awards(r), including Best Musical, Best Book (Thomas Meehan) and Best Score (Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin). The show was one of the biggest Broadway musical hits of the 1970s, running for almost six years and playing 2,377 performances.

ANNIE launched five national US companies and dozens of international productions, including two successful West End productions. The musical has been filmed twice, for motion pictures in 1982 and for television in 1999. 20th and 30th Anniversary productions have toured the country.

"We're truly thrilled to have ANNIE return to Broadway in a brand new production," commented authors Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan. "We think it seems like a great time to welcome back the hope, optimism and spirit of ANNIE. She changed our lives forever."

The score for ANNIE includes "Maybe," "It's the Hard Knock Life," "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile," "Easy Street," "I Don't Need Anything But You" and the eternal anthem of optimism, "Tomorrow".

Arielle Tepper Madover is a Tony Award(r)-winning producer. On Broadway, her producing credits include Red (nominated for seven Tony Awards(r), including Best Play), Hamlet with Jude Law, Hair, Mary Stuart, Equus, Frost/Nixon, Monty Python's Spamalot, The Pillowman, A Raisin in the Sun, James Joyce's The Dead, John Leguizamo's Freak. West End credits include Piaf, Spamalot, Frost/Nixon, Guys and Dolls, Mary Stuart, A Voyage Round My Father. Her Off-Broadway credits include De La Guarda, The Last Five Years. She founded the Summer Play Festival (SPF). She is on the board of Syracuse University, The Public Theater and the Dalton School.

 

 

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