BWW Reviews: Surrounded by 'Little Girls,' Sally Struthers Tap Dances a Fine Line for ANNIE

When Theater of the Stars premieres its 2012 production of “Annie” Saturday night at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, audiences will find a familiar face in the role of disillusioned orphanage matron Miss Hannigan. But then, Sally Struthers has quite a bit of familiarity with the role, too.

Struthers first played Miss Hannigan in 1988 in the show’s 20th anniversary national tour. She said that while she loved Carol Burnett’s performance in the 1983 film adaptation of “Annie,” she takes a different approach to the role.

“I took my daughter—then age 3—to see the movie,” she said. “Miss Hannigan scared her! So when I started playing the role, I didn’t want small children to be scared. I wanted them to laugh at her! She’s been around little girls so much that she’s almost become one. I play her as a lovable buffoon.”

Of course, she also has to portray frightening the little girls in the show, so it can be tricky, she said. “It’s a fine line, and I tread it with tap shoes on.”

“Annie” will run January 14–22. Written by Thomas Meehan with music by Charles Strouse, the original Broadway production the show won 7 Tony Awards in 1977, including Best Musical, Book and Score. This Atlanta engagement is being produced by Christopher Manos and directed and choreographed by Norb Joerder. Michael Dansicker is the musical director and conductor.

Struthers came into Atlanta last week to start rehearsals with the new cast. She said that while she’s played the role multiple times before, it’s always a new experience.

“Rehearsal is a collaborative process,” she said. “There’s often new choreography, and that always keeps me on my toes. How much rehearsal time makes a difference, of course.”

On the other hand, learning a new musical is easier than simply learning lines, she said.

“When music is accompanying the words, it’s easier to remember,” she said. “When my mom died 15 years ago, she didn’t know who I was, but with her last breath, she was singing ‘She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain.’”

Struthers is still best known for her first major role, playing Gloria, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker in the seminal comedy “All in the Family,” which she co-starred in from 1971 to 1978. She is a two-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner for her performances in the groundbreaking series. More recently, she spent 7 years on “The Gilmore Girls” playing Babette, the Gilmores' neighbor. She said she’ll often see a generational gap, with a mother recognizing her as Gloria and her daughter knowing her as Babette.

Among Struthers’ long list of credits is the voice of teenager Charlene on the ABC comedy “Dinosaurs,” which featured animotronic characters. Struthers said while voiceover work is often easy, the show was harder because the visuals were shot first.

“It was like lip synching,” she said. “You had to fit your lines into the mouth movements.”

Her favorite role was in the female adaptation of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” in which she played Florence Unger oppose Brenda Vaccaro. She also loves playing Dolly in “Hello, Dolly,” which she’ll be performing in Jacksonville, Florida, starting next month, and the hairdresser Paulette, whom lead character Elle Woods befriends, in “Legally Blonde: The Musical.”

When asked her favorite people to work with, Struthers immediately named Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, her onscreen parents in “All in the Family,” as well as Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen, with whom she co-starred in “The Getaway.” Of her stage costar in “The Odd Couple,” Brenda Vaccaro, she said, “I worship the ground she walks on!”

“I’ve worked with so many great directors,” she said. “I meet new people all the time. I’m just astonished at all the talent that’s out there.”

She also described about several chance meetings she had with some of her Hollywood idols, including sending Gregory Peck a bottle of champagne across a restaurant and later having him invite her to share his umbrella. Her encounter with comic Peter Sellers turned out quite differently, she admits; she was so nervous that “I wet my pants!”

A friendship with actress Ruth Gordon, who played her mother-in-law in the1976  television movie “The Great Houdini,” led to Struthers staying at Gordon’s New York City brownstone while performing in her first Broadway show, “Wally’s Café.” Her neighbors, she said, included Steven Sondheim and Katharine Hepburn; Hepburn brought Struthers a handmade card for her birthday.

Struthers has done a great deal of regional theater over the past decade. She was named Best Actress by the Los Angeles Artistic Director Theatre Awards for her role as Louise Seger in the musical “Always, Patsy Cline,” a true story based on the relationship between Seger and Cline. She won the 2003 Ovation Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the Los Angeles production of “Mame” and won a second Ovation Award this year for “Cinderella.”

“I’ve never stopped working,” she said. “It’s been fantastic.”

On the other hand, while Struthers loves what she does, she said traveling all over the country to do shows can be difficult.

“I bring my pillow with me,” she said. “The kids record things for me, so I end up watching a month’s worth of shows when I’m home. And thank God for cell phones. I don’t own a computer or fax, and it took my daughter a year to teach me how to text. I have a DVD player, but I can’t use it. I can memorize an hour and a half monologue, but I can’t operate buttons!”

She said her dream would be to work on another television show “so I could stay home.”

“I miss my life,” she said. “You know how back in the '70s women were burning their bras? If I get a TV series, I’m going to have a ceremony and burn my suitcase!”

 

 

 

 

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