On Theater: ‘Annie’ still brightens our tomorrows
When Martin Charnin first penned the lyrics for “Annie” in 1975, he hardly could have known how many of his own “tomorrows” he was inspiring. After directing that original Broadway production, he’s staged 19 touring adaptations.
Charnin is at the helm of the current incarnation now on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and it’s a spirited, highly entertaining show with superior talent in its key characterizations. No matter how many times you’ve seen “Annie,” this production will touch your heart and your funny bone.
From the plucky, uber-optimistic performance of Issie Swickle in the title role to the outrageously brash antics of Lynn Andrews as the orphans’ home dictator, Miss Hannigan, “Annie” tickles with its familiar but still effective machinations, honed over a 40-year gestation period.
Revived every few years, “Annie” is calculated to delight a new generation of little girls each time out. (My 5-year-old granddaughter loved it.) And Charnin’s crisp direction and emphasis on character sustains the celebratory mood.
Swickle is playing her Annie for full effect, and occasionally letting her audience in on the scam with a smile or a wink downstage. Cuteness is contagious, and she’s a highly infected carrier. Her hymn to “Tomorrow” draws enthusiastic applause.
Perfectly cast as her Daddy Warbucks — a billionaire in the midst of the Depression — is Gilgamesh Taggett, a large, booming-voiced actor whose character is wrapped around the orphan’s little finger. He receives staunch support from Ashley Edler as his chief lieutenant, Grace Farrell (whom my daughter once played in grade school).
But the real show stopper, as she should be, is Andrews as the over-the-top Miss Hannigan. Andrews employs a corpulent figure and gravelly voice to abet her garrulous performance as this classic comic villainess. Her viciously imagined “Little Girls” solo is a riotous rendition.
Andrews also participates in the show’s actual best number, “Easy Street,” joining forces with Garrett Deagon as her con-man brother Rooster and Lucy Werner as his sweetie Lily St. Regis (“like the hotel”). Both are excellent in their vaudevillesque star turns, and Deagon excels in comical caricature.
This being 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt is in the White House, and he receives an enthusiastic impression from Jeffery B. Duncan. Cameron Mitchell Bell hams it up as a radio personality, while John Cormier shines as Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, who turns a reluctant singing assignment into a Jolson-like star turn.
Then there’s the “Star to Be,” the perfect description for Hannah Slabaugh as a starry-eyed young lass fresh off the bus in “N.Y.C.” Her enthusiastic solo — in which she holds one note seemingly forever — draws huge applause.
Musical director Keith Levenson presides over a full-bodied orchestra that carries the Charles Strouse musical score to splendid heights. Liza Gennaro’s peppy choreography sustains the mood nicely.
You may know “Annie” so well that you can quote the lines before the actors do, but you’ll still enjoy this rousing revival, directed by the guy who started it all four decades ago, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the daily Pilot, Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent.
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IF YOU GO:
WHAT: “Annie”
WHERE: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
WHEN: Closing performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
COST: Starts at $29
INFORMATION: (714) 556-2787 or SCFTA.org
