BWW Reviews: Allenberry Playhouse Serves Up The Best Area ANNIE of the Season

Many people - especially girls 12 and under - love ANNIE, the musical based on Harold Gray's long-running comic strip Little Orphan Annie, brainchild of Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan. It seems to be the Les Mis of a certain younger set; meanwhile, many adults wait for their younger friends to grow out of it with the same anxious desire that some others have for their adult friends to get over Eponine or Marius. Other adults - possibly most particularly reviewers, but also those who work on the show regularly - run and hide under furniture when it's mentioned; its ubiquitousness (also like Les Mis) means that some of us can't avoid it no matter how hard we try - a particularly taxing issue when, as with this past season, several theatres in a region are putting on the same show or a variation (Annie Jr.) of it.

So when a new production of ANNIE comes out, this reviewer does not precisely bounce with joy. Trepidation is a usual response, and that's the good one. When by intermission I'm compelled to find the director and announce that I'm actually enjoying myself, that production's a winner in my book. And there you have it - Allenberry's current production of ANNIE is in fact a winner. I could credit Artistic Director Roque Berlanga's fine direction, which keeps the show from dragging - a serious danger in the second half in most productions. I could credit Caitlin Evans' Fosse-inspired choreography that makes this production far more watchable than most. And I do credit them, yes.

I could credit Cooper, the most priceless Goldendoodle around, for a particularly fine portrayal of Sandy - this is Cooper's second time playing one of the most significant canine parts ever written into a musical, and the veteran status shows.

But, in fact, I especially credit two individuals - Taylor Smith, who stars as Annie along with Megan Calogero, and Robert Gadpaille as Oliver Warbucks - along with Evans' choreography for making me a happy reviewer. Taylor, already a seasoned younger performer who will also be at Totem Pole over the summer, is a particularly fine Annie, able to convey emotion without either milking sentiment or going over the top; she's neither stilted nor corny, but relatively mature in her sincerity of delivery. Gadpaille brings two major assets to his portrayal of Warbucks - a stone-cold attitude that starts out chilly and never sinks into mush, and a baritone that delivers for the entire show. If you sit in the first few rows, be prepared to feel this opera-trained performer sing, as well as hear him - he's got that kind of power. With the pairing of these two as the lead characters, there's no opportunity for this production to sink into the depths that many other productions fall into; there's a believable development of their relationship, not the "Who are you and why should I like you - oh, let's be together forever!" absurdity that this show frequently falls into. To be honest, this is the first regional production of ANNIE I've seen that I'd return to simply on the strength of the show's Oliver Warbucks and a really professional Annie.

But there are other delights here as well. The staging of the central "NYC" with Gadpaille, Smith, and Andrea Rouch as a solid Grace Farrell is lovely, with Berlanga and Evans creating a show of stage business that's far beyond what most shows give, telling a wonderful, silent brief story of sailors on shore leave that almost hearkens to ON THE TOWN. Their slightly inebriated adventures and their mistaking of a Roxy usher's elaborate costume for a higher-ranking officer's dress uniform in the midst of the dance routine are spectacularly amusing. The staging of "Easy Street" here would fit easily into a production of CHICAGO, its period Fosse vibe as clear and precise as it is. Which is a reminder, of course, that this production's Miss Hannigan, Katie Ladner, is a solid belter whose performance of "Little Girls" is also a show-stopper. Her brother, Rooster, played by Ben Laxton, is perhaps one of the best Roosters recently seen in the area, and given the number of ANNIES in Central Pennsylvania of late, that is indeed a compliment.

This is an ANNIE that an adult audience can love - not cloying, not overly adorable, not pandering to the sweetness factor. While it is plainly as appealing to children as any other production of ANNIE, and while it falls into the family-friendly category, it doesn't feel like one of the many productions of the show that's simply aimed at children, whether genuine or overgrown. The plot points on the Great Depression, Hoovervilles, economics, the birth of the WPA and of the New Deal don't feel secondary to the rest of the show in this production, but relevant. The fact that this Oliver Warbucks genuinely feels like he's all business helps that tremendously.

And that, of course, is the rub in the book of ANNIE. The original comic was written by a dedicated anti-New Deal Republican who felt that labor unions were the antithesis of all that was good and decent in America, who was suspicious of Communism, who hated the New Deal with a passion; yet the musical has Harold Gray's spokesman, Oliver Warbucks (the name is not insignificant) begging President Roosevelt for programs to get people back to work. In the musical, Warbucks espouses virtually everything the character was against in the comic strip. (Meanwhile, however, in "I'm Going to Like It Here," Warbucks' servants sing enthusiastically of how proud they are of their status as uniformed domestic help. Apparently the irony is not intended, but it grates.) It is, once again, Gadpaille's playing a really tough, iron-fisted Warbucks that keeps the character from feeling far too soft, far too divorced from the source of its inspiration.

This is the sort of work that Allenberry Playhouse is well capable of doing and should produce more often - a production with solid musical and visual values, a well-chosen cast, and clear directorial vision that's plainly shared by director and choreographer. (And also, huzzah, an Annie who isn't playing the part in an orange clown wig - no bushy mass of tight, bright-orange curls to be found in this show, removing the character from the painful caricature that is so often shoved on stage.) It may be the most satisfying show Allenberry has produced since last season's CHICAGO, and it offers great hopes for The Playhouse's upcoming HAIRSPRAY.

At Allenberry until August 11, and the only production of it in the area this year -- or almost anytime in any location - I'd cheerfully see more than once (at least without Jane Lynch in it). This production's got guts, which the show badly needs but rarely displays. Call 717-258-3211 or visit www.allenberry.com for tickets.

Photo courtesy of Allenberry Playhouse

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