Interview: Hazel Vogel of ANNIE at Segerstrom Center For The Arts

It’s certainly not a hard knock life for 12-year-old Hazel Vogel. The Towson, MD tween currently plays “Annie” in the national tour of the show, which began in November (with Whoopi Goldberg briefly playing the part of Miss Hannigan) and will conclude May 7-18 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. 

Hazel is no stranger to the stage. In 2023, she played a young Cosette in the national tour of Les Miserables—and she has been acting, singing, and dancing since she was 5. 

But what’s it like to be on tour as America’s favorite Tomorrow-loving redhead? Fellow girl-tweens (and aspiring Broadway actresses themselves) Hannah Rubinstein and Charlee Marie, both 10, sat down with Hazel on Zoom to find out. 

Charlee: HI!  I’m Charlee!

Hannah: And I’m Hannah! OK: We have some questions. 

Hazel: All right. Let’s do it. 

Charlee: So if you could play any musical theater character of any age—and it doesn't have to be a kid part—what would it be? 

Hazel: I would really love to originate a role, like do a show that's just been written, or something nobody else has done. 

Hannah: Is your natural hair color red, or did you have to dye it? 

Hazel: So I actually wear a wig on stage, so I take my hair, and I put it in these things called pin curls, I wrap it around my fingers, and then I pin it close to my head, so my hair is down on my head. And then I put a wig cap on and then put the wig on. I have three different wigs. 

Charlee: Is there a character in any of the plays you've been in that you would most like to be friends with in real life? If so, why or why not?

Hazel: Hmm, that's a good question. Probably Annie. Honestly, I would really like to have a friend like Annie because she's so sweet and she's so kind and she'll stick up for you whenever you need it. Yeah, I think she'd be really fun to be around.

Hannah: Okay, so the next one is about Sandy [whose name is Kevin in real life]. He's so cute!  But has he ever messed up on stage or done something he wasn't supposed to do?

Hazel: Yeah, sometimes he does. Sometimes, he'll accidentally get up a little too early or instead of staying there and laying on his side, he'll kind of like go up onto his stomach instead of his side. There's also an understudy dog. He’s gone on once, but he messed up a couple of times because he wasn't used to being on stage.   

Hannah: How did he mess up? 

Hazel: So when the understudy dog was on, he just got up a few times when he wasn't supposed to. Nothing too big. When the dogs are on stage, nobody can come and correct them, so it's kind of hard.

Charlee: What are three things you miss most about home when you're performing on tour? 

Hazel: Definitely my friends. I really miss hanging out with my friends and going to my school. I also miss my bed—I miss sleeping in my own bed and, like, my house. Yeah, those are probably the things I miss the most.

Hannah: What is the hardest part of being in a show like this?

Hazel: Definitely when you're on tour. It's much harder than just doing a show at home. On tour, it's hard to balance taking care of your body and doing the show with also having your personal life and keeping in touch with your friends at home and your family.

Charlee: Do you have a voice warm-up routine? If so, can you show it to us, or can you teach it to us? 

Hazel: So I do a 20-minute vocal warm-up, so I can't exactly like show my whole voice routine now, but I usually do lip trills [does lip trill], which is like like that, and go up different octaves. And I do my vowels and sing different things. My voice teacher gives me a voice memo thing that I just follow along with.

Hannah: So what is the best part of being part of like a show like this? 

Hazel: Probably touring. It's definitely getting to see all the different places and meeting so many people, like at the stage door and people who come to the show. But it's also really fun to become family with the cast because you're with them 24-7. There are seven girls in this show, and we're all like sisters. So it's really fun.

Hannah: Yeah, that seems so fun!

Charlee: When you're not performing, do you have a favorite hobby?

Hazel: I recently just picked up crocheting. One of the girls and I are doing a little crochet business within the cast, and we're making like octopuses and bees and stuff [shows a crochet octopus, then a crochet frog to the camera]. 

Charlee: That’s really good!

Hannah: He’s so cute!

Hazel: It's a little frog. He's a little wacko.   

Hannah: Aside from Annie, what was your favorite show you were in? 

Hazel: That's a good question. I did Newsies over the summer, and I really liked doing that. I also did a show called Oliver in May, which was really fun because there were a ton of kids in it. I was the understudy for Oliver so I got to go on for one night.

Charlee:  Did you like being an understudy?

Hazel: Yeah, it's nice because you get to bond more with the person who's the actual main character because you kind of have to, you know, work together. It's a little more difficult, but it's a lot of fun.

Hannah: You’re home-schooled, right?

Hazel: So, kind of. I'm still with my school at home. I do the five main subjects like math, science, English, Spanish, and history because they count PE and art and all those things as the show. So I have a little document where they write all the things that all the kids did, and then I just do them on the road, and so I travel with the books I need, and then I do the worksheets on my computer. 

Hannah: Are all your friends happy for you, or are some maybe even a little bit jealous?

Hazel: I mean I don't really know. I hope that they're happy for me. I talk to them a lot and I can't wait until I get to go back and see them again. I miss them a lot. 

Hannah: Do they ever come to your shows?

Hazel: Yes, they did, actually. When we were in New York for a month, all my friends did a field trip. My grade did a field trip, and they came up to New York, and they saw me in the show. And then a bunch of them also came back when I went to my hometown. 

[Charlee’s mom, from off-camera, steps into the Zoom.]

Whitney: Hi, I’m Charlie's mom. How are you? We have been following you on Instagram and we think you're the cutest thing ever. But I've often wondered: How does your mother do this? It's very difficult to be in a Broadway traveling show. Like, do you have siblings? And like—How does this all happen? 

Hazel: I have two older brothers. One of them actually lives in LA because he's 24, and then the other one is 17. And so he's in high school.

[Hazel’s dad, from off-camera, steps into the Zoom]

Hazel’s dad: It's a big sacrifice, but take turns. So my wife and I are both blessed that we're flexible enough so that every three to four weeks, we rotate. So one of us is back home, and the other one's here. We're lucky that we rotate, but we have other parents who are both teachers, and they can't be on the tour for a lot of the time. So we have grandparents traveling with the kids. So it's, you know, parents make it work. We have another girl who's got a mom, a dad, and friends who all have taken turns being on tour. So we have friends on tour. It's just, you just find a way to make it happen.
 
Charlee’s mom: Yeah, well, that's amazing. Props to you guys. It's a really, really cool thing that you do.

Hazel’s dad: And by the way, these two cuties here did a fantastic job with their interview. 

Charlee and Hannah: Thanks!  

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