A perennial favourite, sometimes given the moniker (perhaps unjustly) as a female Oliver!, the show stars a bevvy of young girls, and the ah factor is further added to by the appearance of Sandy (or in this case Amber) a dog. What's not to like?!
A further attraction for audiences this time round is that veteran star Anita Dobson is playing the principal role of Miss Hannigan.
This is the all new updated version of the show, and so some of the more well-known songs have gone (Dumb Dog, We Got Annie etc) in favour of the less well known - although perhaps more musically mature 'NYC' and 'We'd Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover' (Hooverville). Thankfully though the story has not changed any, and although it is possibly not as coherent as it could have been, it was still fairly easy to follow. Miss Hannigan (Anita Dobson) is the drunken lush who cannot stand looking after the young charges in her orphanage and treats them worse than slaves. One of them, Annie, is given the chance to spend Christmas with one of the wealthiest men in the whole of America, Oliver Warbucks (Alex Bourne) and he is taken with her so much that he decides to adopt her. Miss Hanigan's jailbird brother and his fiancee ((Richard Meek and Jenny Gayner) however have other ideas....!
I had two surprises in store for me this evening though. First the set. Open to the audience on entering it looked very much like a cross between Matilda and Wicked and could easily have been from either. It was a static set and only smaller items on trucks or moved by the cast were brought in and out for each scene. It was very modern and very 'West End'. With jigsaw pieces all over which lit up at various points throughout the show for seemingly no apparent reason the set neither showed the squalor of the orphanage (or indeed the homeless in Hooverville) nor the opulence of The Warbucks' residence, we were never at any time from looking at the set alone aware that the Musical was set at Christmastime, and there was little or no evidence of time or place (New York in 1933) - it could have been simply anywhere!
The second shock came when I realised that Little Orphan Annie was not as we all fondly remember her from the original cartoon, the film, or any other version of this show I have thus far seen. Taziva-Faye Katsande played the role with excellence and proficiency, and she is undeniably talented, but she didn't have red hair (mentioned in the dialogue at least twice!).
It's a feel-good show, fast-moving and slick. The cast are all uber-talented and I admired the ensemble work greatly. Bourne made an upright and stolid Warbucks which complimented Dobson's more slapstick and comedic Miss Hannigan nicely, whilst the entire cast had lovely singing voices and the choreography (Nick Winston) was punchy, dynamic, and perfectly suited to the cast and the show. For me, it was simply the best thing in the show. Winston obviously has his own unique style and this showed through in every number, and when working with especially the children for 'Hard Knock Life' he really managed to bring out the best in them and they responded with perfection.
And whilst I am mentioning the children, then the company has three teams which revolve on a show basis, and this evening's team were superb - especially the youngest / smallest of the group whose cheeky grin and antics stole the show!
It was a hugely ambitious show, which didn't quite pay off for me. Annie is a traditional book Musical (ie: there is a libretto and songs are added to this as songs may be added to a play), and I do believe the production company were treating this show in the same way they would treat a modern through-sung Musical, and the two ideas never really cohered. If you have never seen the Musical before (nor the film) then you will undoubtedly love this new production. Fast moving, well acted, well sung and even better danced, it will delight both young and the young at heart!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 6/2/19
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