By Randi Bjornstad
Little Orphan Annie was a precocious 11-year-old when she first appeared in the newspaper comics in 1924, and well before that run ended in 2010, she also added perpetual film and musical stardom to her résumé, making her, now a whopping 106, one of the most enduring personalities of stage, screen, and newsprint.
Annie the musical had its Broadway debut in August 1976, with Andrea McArdle in the title role after Kristen Vigard, who played Annie in the Connecticut previews, was deemed not tough enough for the part. McArdle had started out playing Pepper, another standout orphan in the cast, and after the switch, Vigard became her understudy on Broadway.
The original Broadway run lasted so long that several Annies aged out of the role. After McArdle, the succession included young actresses Shelley Bruce, Sarah Jessica Parker, Allison Smith, and Alyson Kirk before the show closed in January 1983 after 2,377 performances.
Now, the 2019 Shedd Theatricals season continues at The Shedd Institute for the Arts with its production of Annie. The season opened in July with Damn Yankees and will close in December with She Loves Me.
Ellen Poulsen, a newcomer to The Shedd stage, takes the role of the redheaded moptop, with the other familiar characters — billionaire Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, his secretary Grace Farrell, and cruel orphanage director Miss Hannigan — played by Lanny Mitchell, Shirley Andress, and Lyn Burg.
Other feature roles are taken by Thomas Guastavino as Rooster, Sophia James as Lily, and Larry Kenton as FDR. Orphans Molly, Kate, Pepper, July Tessie, and Duffy are played by Eliyah Chandler, Bailey Ubel, Tessa Douangaphalvong, Meridian Hula, Kido Pyle, and Hannah Ford.
The ensemble includes Mariah Bailey, Eric Blanchard, Kara Churchill, Kenady Conforth, Phil Dempsey, Zoe Goings, Daisy DeSalvo, Josie DeSalvo, Kim Fairbairn, Ward Fairbairn, Johanna Gilbert, Ashley Mason, and Heidi Turnquist.
Ron Daum directs The Shedd’s Annie, with music direction by Robert Ashens. Designers are Jim Ralph (sets), Jamie Parker (costumes), Connie Huston (scene painting), James McConkey (lighting), and Chris Lewis (sound). Production and stage manager is Kristin Combs, assisted by Greg Hopper-Moore, with Tabetha Crosely as properties master, Kenady Conforth as dance captain, and Emily Kidder as music director’s assistant and rehearsal pianist. Mike Briley and Earindale Biskup are technical directors. Jim Ralph is executive producer.
The plot is no doubt familiar to most. Annie, who was left on the orphanage doorstep, has a locket that she believes proves that her mother really loved her. She engages her fellow orphans to help her escape the orphanage so she can go in search of her real parents. Annie climbs into a large laundry cart, and her friends cover her up with dirty clothes while Miss Hannigan flirts with the laundryman.
Once out on the street, she meets a stray dog named Sandy, and the two take up with a group of people made homeless by the Great Depression until a policeman who has been alerted by Miss Hannigan comes along and returns her to the orphanage.
Before long, Grace Farrell appears, searching for an orphan to share the Christmas Holiday at the Warbucks mansion, and chooses Annie. At first Mr. Warbucks is not pleased, but he quickly takes to Annie’s presence. When he sees her locket and buys her a new, expensive one, she cries and says the old one is the only thing she has to remind her of her parents. Warbucks and his staff pledge to try to find out who they were, and he offers a $50,000 reward for information leading to their identities. In the meantime, he takes Annie to Washington, D.C., to meet his friend, President Franklin Roosevelt, who also becomes enamored of the redheaded girl.
Miss Hannigan, her brother Rooster, and his girlfriend Lily decide to try to fool everyone into believing Rooster and Lily are Annie’s parents. In the meantime, Mr. Warbucks tells Annie he wants to adopt her and begins proceedings, which Rooster and Lily, masquerading as a Mr. and Mrs. Mudge, interrupt, claiming they are the parents.
Mr. Warbucks does not believe them but cannot prove otherwise, but President Roosevelt intervenes, having put the Secret Service on the case and discovering that Annie’s parents died when she was an infant. Rooster, Lily, and Miss Hannigan are arrested for their plot, Daddy Warbucks adopts Annie (and Sandy), FDR’s New Deal becomes law and begins to help the poor, other families come forward to adopt the other orphans, and all ends happily.
Although many modern musicals don’t produce songs that people remember and keep on singing, Annie is a happy exception, featuring enduring tunes such as It’s a Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow, I Don’t Need Anything But You, Maybe, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile, Little Girls, and Easy Street.
Annie
When: Evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 13-14, 20-21, 27-28, and matinees at 3 p.m. on Sept. 15, 22, 29
Where: Jaqua Concert Hall at The Shedd, 868 High St., Eugene
Tickets: $29 to $39 (discounts for youth, groups, and ticket packages), available at the ticket office, 541-434-7000, or online at theshedd.org
