ANNIE to Celebrate World Book Night, 4/23

ANNIE, the new production of the Tony Award-winning musical, will be celebrating "World Book Night" on Tuesday, April 23. All Annie audience members at the Tuesday performance will receive a paperback book, courtesy of World Book Night, for them to pass on to a reluctant reader or a reader in need.

Books handed out at Annie will include The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (Yearling/Random House), Looking for Alaska by John Green (Speak/Penguin Book Group), and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Disney). These novels are best suited to young readers, but all of WBN's 30 selected books for 2013, chosen by an independent panel of booksellers and librarians, will be represented.

World Book Night U.S. is part of an ambitious global campaign to encourage reading. In the U.S., a half million free books will be handed out in towns and cities across America all on one day - April 23, 2013 - by enlisting 25,000 volunteer book lovers to help promote reading by going into their communities and personally handing out specially printed copies to light or non-readers and to those without the means or access to printed books. World Book Night in the U.S. is a non-profit organization. World Book Night is also celebrated in the U.K., where it originated in 2010, and in Ireland and Germany. The campaign is supported by bookstores, libraries, authors, and publishers nationwide. World Book Night's honorary U.S. chairpeople are authors Ann Patchett and James Patterson.

ANNIE, the new production of the Tony Award-winning musical, opened to critical acclaim on November 8, 2012 at the Palace Theatre (Broadway at 47th Street).

ANNIE stars two-time Tony Award winner Katie Finneran as Miss Hannigan, Australian star Anthony Warlow making his Broadway debut as Daddy Warbucks and 12-year-old Lilla Crawford as Annie, with Brynn O'Malley as Grace Farrell, Clarke Thorell as Rooster Hannigan, and J. Elaine Marcos as Lily St. Regis. The Orphans are Madi Rae DiPietro as July, Georgi James as Pepper, Junah Jang as Tessie, Tyrah Skye Odoms as Kate, Taylor Richardson as Duffy, Emily Rosenfeld as Molly, Brooklyn Shuck as standby for Molly, Kate, Tessie, July, Duffy, Sadie Sink as standby for Annie, Tessie, Duffy, July & Pepper and Jaidyn Young as standby for the roles of Annie, Pepper, Duffy and July. The production also features Ashley Blanchet, Jane Blass, Jeremy Davis, Fred Inkley, Merwin Foard, Joel Hatch, Danette Holden, Amanda Lea LaVergne, Gavin Lodge, Liz McCartney, Desi Oakley, Keven Quillon, David Rossetti, Sarah Solie, Dennis Stowe and Ryan VanDenBoom.

Anthony Warlow is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance with this production.

The original production of Annie opened April 21, 1977 at the Alvin Theatre and went on to win 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, 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.

For more about the production, go to www.AnnieTheMusical.com.