The Show:  

It’s a Hard-Knock Life for orphans during The Great Depression. Especially when you’re being raised by the little girl-hating Miss Hannigan. But in this beloved musical by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse, and Martin Charnin based on that curly red-headed Little Orphan Annie of comic strip fame, all those problems are nothing that can’t be fixed just so long as you believe the sun will come out Tomorrow. And if that optimism ain’t enough? Try being adopted by Daddy Warbucks – the billionaire!  

The Production:  

MET2 has been staging Annie for a couple decades now, and they know what they’re doing. Director/Choreographer Alison Bretches has a great eye for comic potential and her choreography is both lively and humorous. The visuals are all there with beautiful sets and backgrounds, and excellent costumes (Kathie Urban) for their cast of two hundred or so kids. And when two hundred orphans literally kick out It’s a Hard-Knock Life, you believe ’em!  

For their summer production in Northridge, young Sofia Cohen stars in the title role with some big belts for Maybe and Tomorrow, and turning in a charming I Don’t Need Anything But You duet with Daddy Warbucks (Matthew Weeden). And it’s gotta be tough to grow up charming when you’re raised in the orphanage by Miss Hannigan. Mady Rasey is hysterical and original in the role of Hannigan, including some serious stalking of an uncomfortable FDR and a terrific condemnation of a life surrounded by hundreds of Little Girls – forcing her to “breathe them” (sung with a deep breath in) and to “see them” (sung like seeing dead people in The Sixth Sense). Warbucks’s executive secretary Grace Farrell is happy to take at least one of the little girls off her hands, with Kelsey Shaw bringing in the perfect mix of executive style, executive smarts, natural humor, and a tender and delighted affinity for Annie.  

The huge cast is sprinkled with adults in some of the adult roles. Matthew Weeden provides a great personality for Warbucks that is both humorous and moving, adding a nice touch with body language of a man who’s always been socially awkward and is just starting to realize all he’s been missing. On Hannigan’s side we have her brother Rooster, with Marc Snetiker slipping nicely into a laughably sleazy gangster role. And by his side is his ditzy hotel girlfriend, Lily St. Regis, with Kaeli Carr delivering hilarious personality, vocal work, and physical humor as a flighty woman rather infatuated with herself and the aura all around her (given to flowing her hands through the air in swirls). Together with Hannigan, they take us for a fun ride down Easy Street.  

Elsewhere, Bob Mills is an amusing FDR who talks his way wittily through Tomorrow, AC Gottlieb is a neurotic radio host Bert Healy who fights his tap dancer sound man for not tapping the way he wants him to tap, and Sara Gutierrez shines as a NYC Star To Be. A few adults and lots of teenagers are a charismatic band of Warbucks servants and struggling residents of Hooverville. Bella Lopez is little Molly who does a pretty good Hannigan impression and Sydney Jones is Tessie whose many “Oh my goodness!” lines are trembling with trepidation and who helps lead the countless orphans in Never Fully Dressed. And those orphans are tops in that number as well as doing It’s a Hard-Knock Life with spit and polish and orneriness, and giving us hope for the future as part of the big Tomorrow finale.

Performed July 8 - 10, 2011
Photos by Nancy Hickey

Rob Hopper
rob@nationalyouththeatre.com
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Executive Director
National Youth Arts

~ Cast ~