Annie Playhouse Edinburgh 21st March 2023 Review
Annie is at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tue 21 - Sat 25 March), and with Paul O’ Grady as Miss Hannigan and David Burrows as Daddy Warbucks, we are taken back to the great depression era of 1930s America where the only bright outlook around seems to be that of a young orphan girl.
Annie is one of the most enduring characters of the last 100 years or so, a star of books, newspaper strips, film, radio and television, with many people perhaps knowing her story best from two recent films in 1982 and 2014 (there were far earlier ones too). Annie is no stranger to the stage either and the original Broadway production opened in 1977. This stage production is obviously a huge success too as the theatre was full tonight, and the story of Annie is clearly as popular to people of all ages as it has ever been.
What is it that has kept Annie so popular for so long? I honestly don’t have the answer to that, but perhaps the clues are right at the beginning of her story. I know Annie best from the syndicated newspaper strip “Little Orphan Annie” (later just “Annie) created by Harold Gray which made its debut in the New York Daily News in 1924. The strip survived Gray’s death and even though syndication numbers were sharply down on the early years, and the comic strip now reprinting earlier stories, Annie did survive in syndication form until 2010. Annie is even older than her comic strip though as Harold Gray took her name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" (correct spelling here) by James Whitcomb Riley.
This stage show by the very fact that Annie and the cast of orphans are performed by young people means that that cast line-up will change over performances and, tonight, in that titular role Harlie Barthram got to be everybody’s role model of positivity, that little ray of sunshine cutting through the darkness of everything around her, and no matter how irritating people like this can be to many of us at times, this was a strong performance. Helping make this such a strong performance were some of the best known musical stage songs of many years including “It’s The Hard-Knock Life” and “Tomorrow”.
Annie, for me, is always a bit of an odd show as at its heart it is a classic musical theatre stage show with very good sets, costumes, choreography, and of course songs, and the good people in it almost too good to be true and the bad people almost Victorian vaudeville characters. Here both good and evil, with good obviously winning in the end, play out their stories to a backdrop of some classic song and dance numbers, and “Easy Street” was just one of them. If you look a little bit below the surface of Annie there are, however, so many questions to be answered. Top of this list for me is who exactly is “Daddy Warbucks”? In this show we get some clues, but could even Annie bring about the redemption of such a person? We also get some glimpses on stage as to the effect that the economic crisis is having on ordinary people in America of the time and "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover" has much to say about this.
Ultimately this show usually rises or falls on whoever is playing Miss Hannigan, and Paul O’ Grady, judging from audience applause was obviously a popular choice for this role with many people, and there is more than a little bit of his one-time alter ego Lily Savage in his performance here. Is this the woman that all the children are terrified of though; I am not sure as there is something very endearing about Miss Hannigan, something almost pantomime about her, a sort of wicked witch with a warm heart somewhere (or at least a bottle of alcohol or two in the fridge). Perhaps we are not allowed to terrify young children in the audience now as to the true horrors of this orphanage with its forced labour scheme and only hot or cold mush for food. In the end, Annie is a feel good show and it was good to see Paul O’ Grady back on stage.
A special mention here has to go to Paul French in his role as the true villain of this story (if you ignore Daddy Warbucks making millions for manufacturing weapons) as Miss Hannigan’s younger brother, the ever scheming and ruthless Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan. This is a pure comic strip villain and Paul was obviously enjoying every moment of this role on stage. Adding some humour to this role, Billie Kay as Rooster’s accomplice Lily completed a good on-stage double act. Not forgetting too, Amelia Adams as Daddy Warbucks’ personal assistant, Grace Farrell, who just seemed to fit this role perfectly.
With a big standing ovation at the end of this show and an even bigger one when Paul O’ Grady walked on stage, Annie is obviously a big hit with Scottish audiences once more.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Annie is one of the most enduring characters of the last 100 years or so, a star of books, newspaper strips, film, radio and television, with many people perhaps knowing her story best from two recent films in 1982 and 2014 (there were far earlier ones too). Annie is no stranger to the stage either and the original Broadway production opened in 1977. This stage production is obviously a huge success too as the theatre was full tonight, and the story of Annie is clearly as popular to people of all ages as it has ever been.
What is it that has kept Annie so popular for so long? I honestly don’t have the answer to that, but perhaps the clues are right at the beginning of her story. I know Annie best from the syndicated newspaper strip “Little Orphan Annie” (later just “Annie) created by Harold Gray which made its debut in the New York Daily News in 1924. The strip survived Gray’s death and even though syndication numbers were sharply down on the early years, and the comic strip now reprinting earlier stories, Annie did survive in syndication form until 2010. Annie is even older than her comic strip though as Harold Gray took her name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" (correct spelling here) by James Whitcomb Riley.
This stage show by the very fact that Annie and the cast of orphans are performed by young people means that that cast line-up will change over performances and, tonight, in that titular role Harlie Barthram got to be everybody’s role model of positivity, that little ray of sunshine cutting through the darkness of everything around her, and no matter how irritating people like this can be to many of us at times, this was a strong performance. Helping make this such a strong performance were some of the best known musical stage songs of many years including “It’s The Hard-Knock Life” and “Tomorrow”.
Annie, for me, is always a bit of an odd show as at its heart it is a classic musical theatre stage show with very good sets, costumes, choreography, and of course songs, and the good people in it almost too good to be true and the bad people almost Victorian vaudeville characters. Here both good and evil, with good obviously winning in the end, play out their stories to a backdrop of some classic song and dance numbers, and “Easy Street” was just one of them. If you look a little bit below the surface of Annie there are, however, so many questions to be answered. Top of this list for me is who exactly is “Daddy Warbucks”? In this show we get some clues, but could even Annie bring about the redemption of such a person? We also get some glimpses on stage as to the effect that the economic crisis is having on ordinary people in America of the time and "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover" has much to say about this.
Ultimately this show usually rises or falls on whoever is playing Miss Hannigan, and Paul O’ Grady, judging from audience applause was obviously a popular choice for this role with many people, and there is more than a little bit of his one-time alter ego Lily Savage in his performance here. Is this the woman that all the children are terrified of though; I am not sure as there is something very endearing about Miss Hannigan, something almost pantomime about her, a sort of wicked witch with a warm heart somewhere (or at least a bottle of alcohol or two in the fridge). Perhaps we are not allowed to terrify young children in the audience now as to the true horrors of this orphanage with its forced labour scheme and only hot or cold mush for food. In the end, Annie is a feel good show and it was good to see Paul O’ Grady back on stage.
A special mention here has to go to Paul French in his role as the true villain of this story (if you ignore Daddy Warbucks making millions for manufacturing weapons) as Miss Hannigan’s younger brother, the ever scheming and ruthless Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan. This is a pure comic strip villain and Paul was obviously enjoying every moment of this role on stage. Adding some humour to this role, Billie Kay as Rooster’s accomplice Lily completed a good on-stage double act. Not forgetting too, Amelia Adams as Daddy Warbucks’ personal assistant, Grace Farrell, who just seemed to fit this role perfectly.
With a big standing ovation at the end of this show and an even bigger one when Paul O’ Grady walked on stage, Annie is obviously a big hit with Scottish audiences once more.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com