Review: Broadway Across America presents ANNIE at Kentucky Performing Arts

When most people think of Annie, I'm sure the first thing that comes to mind is the 80s film, starring the iconic likes of Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, and Bernadette Peters. However, before that now-classic film, Annie started as a musical stage adaptation of the Little Orphan Annie comic strips. The show opened on Broadway in 1977, where it was a smash success in its own right, even before the film adaptation that would come later. The show and story have undoubtedly stood the test of time, what with numerous stage revivals, three film adaptations, and a live TV version broadcast on NBC. Not to mention every family-based community theatre in the country has had it as part of their seasons for the past 40 years.

The show is back on the road in a new tour, spreading the show's specifically branded sugar-coated optimism. The plot is simple: Annie is an orphan living in New York City during the Great Depression under the iron fist of Miss Hannigan, the drunken spinster who runs the orphanage. One day Annie is whisked away into the glamorous life of billionaire Oliver Warbucks, but through it all she never gives up hope of finding her family. Nor does she give up hope that the sun, indeed, will come out tomorrow.

The cast is led by Ellie Rose Pulsifer as Annie. She sports the iconic red frizz with pride as she sings loud, proud, and remarkably well as our precocious protagonist. Stefanie Londino does a commendable job as Miss Hannigan. Some of her line readings were a bit too broad for my taste, as for me a lot of Hannigan's humor comes from dry delivery. Londino does, however, sell the show-stopping "Little Girls" with brassy gusto. Christopher Swan as Oliver Warbucks does very well with what is arguably a bit of a two-dimensional character. His "Something was Missing" was beautifully sung and appropriately touching. The biggest surprise of the night for me was Julia Nicole Hunter as Grace. Grace can easily fall through the cracks of the story with less capable performers, but Hunter really made the character came alive for me. Her voice is soaring and melodic, and her scenes, especially with Pulsifer's Annie, were sincere and heartfelt.

I've personally always had a soft spot for Annie. I grew up with the film and in a lot of ways it spawned a lot of my love for musicals. The stage version is vastly different, with more adult themes and cheeky commentary about the political landscape of the early 1930s. I personally like the stage version, but it's one of those musicals that is really hard to make pop. More likely than not, most productions fall somewhere between mediocre and good.

The current national tour falls more towards the good side of the spectrum. The cast is energetic and a lot of the production design is nice enough, but, like I mentioned before, it's very hard to make this show pop. All in all - it's a lovely night at the theatre revisiting a very polished production of a beloved classic, but there's nothing particularly special about this tour that would leave me clamoring for a second viewing.

ANNIE

Now - February 19th

Whitney Hall at Kentucky Performing Arts

https://www.kentuckyperformingarts.org