Annie Waking Up at the End of the Show - "It Was All a Dream"?

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 10:54am

I've heard the legend many times of the production of "Annie" that ended with the titular character waking up in the orphanage and realizing that all the wonderful things that had happened to her over the course of the show were all just a dream. However, I can't track down any concrete information on this production. Does anyone know anything further about it?

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 10:58am

Is that true?!?!?! That's hysterical. Imagine what a downer that was for the audience.

"We'll get a New Deal for Christm - ah, crap. I'm still poor."

[jv92]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 11:03am

That just made me a little bit more depressed.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 11:05am

That was Amanda Dehnert's production at Trinity Rep. Strouse and Charnin after seeing the production insisted that the original ending be restored, but Strouse at least was suitably impressed with Donahue's creativity that she was asked to direct his in development musical YOU NEVER KNOW.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 11:10am

Poor Trinity Rep, over the years, they've really tried some doozies. Like Anne Bogart's "On the Town."

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 11:14am

Here is a link to a review of their production of ANNIE. It sounds fascinating but pretty pretentious....

Dehnert goes out of her way to paint a vivid picture of the desperation that Depression era men and women suffered. There are dark edges to this musical. The orphans are abused, physically and mentally. The idea of murder is toyed with. The show's ensemble plays as a constant reminder of the hopeless masses who are constantly outside the wealthy Daddy Warbucks' front door. Annie sings her trademark "Tomorrow" while thinking of a poor woman in much worse shape than herself. The song becomes more poignant, and of greater social importance when given this focus.
Annie at Trinity Rep

[Jon]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 11:45am

Amanda is now head of the musical theatre program at Northwestern University.

She got her start taking drama classes and working backstage as a teen at our theatre.

She also created the ten-actor MY FAIR LADY at Trinity Rep, which Gary Griffin completely ripped off (and which multiple other directors then ripped off from him).

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 12:42pm

That sounds dreadful.

Annie is a sweet musical comedy. Why turn it into some big social commentary?

When did it become in vogue to make all musical comedies "darker" and "grittier"?

[romgitsean]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 12:48pm

That actually sounds really badass... I loathe Annie with every fiber of my being. I'm glad someone decided to at least try something new.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 1:02pm

You mean Gary Griffin ripped off ANOTHER director's work???

You know he famously stole the staging from Gerald Gutierrez' production of MOST HAPPY FELLA for a regional production.

In fact, he got busted for it and that's the whole reason why the Lincoln Center Archives now has a rule that you can't watch a production there more than once. Apparently he had viewed MOST HAPPY FELLA at LCA more than twenty times.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 1:13pm

I wonder if some pretentious local theatre company will modernize Annie into 2010 and have it end that way. Hmm. I kinda want to see it...

[philcrosby]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 1:25pm

Amanda Denhert's FANTASTICKS, which played Arena Stage after Trinity Rep, was totally magical, in all senses of the word.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 1:28pm

Well, for any other group to do that would be illegal. Period. They don't have the right to f&@K with the ending.

Note: I am a hater of Annie as well. Ick.

[sondhead]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 3:04pm

When it comes to changes made for future productions, I think there is a difference between interpreting the creator's work and changing the creator's work, i.e. making it mean something they didn't intend it to. I believe the latter is not appropriate. Write your own show. I also think that changed Annie ending crosses the line.

Sondheim said it best when responding to a Seattle production of "Company" in the early 90's in which several characters' gender and sexuality were changed: something along the lines of sometimes crappy directors fancy themselves writers, but find they aren't good enough at it, so they just mess with someone else's work. There's an article about it in The Sondheim Review from around that time but I don't feel like digging it out for the word-for-word just now
Updated On: 5/23/10 at 03:04 PM

[degrassifan]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 4:27pm

Damn, that's hilarious and depressing at the same time. I think wonderwaiter's post said it best.

[raker]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 7:56pm

I saw Anne Bogart's On the Town at Trinity and I remember liking it. I had never seen it before. What did people so dislike about it? Some time later I watched the desecration of a movie version. That has to be the worst Broadway-to-movie musical ever.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 9:13pm

"I saw Anne Bogart's On the Town at Trinity and I remember liking it."

I think that was the one that was set on a battleship, wasn't it? In the end, the battleship gets bombed? Or was her concept that they were playing it for an old folks home like it was a USO show? I've seen so many "reimaginations" I can't remember which concept goes with which show.

[raker]

Posted: 5/23/10 at 10:40pm

That sounds dreadful, but that's not the show I remember. I do remember a huge ship from which the sailors entered, but the story wasn't set on the ship. I remember the taxi, subway and museum sets. I don't remember it being weird at all. Maybe she emphasized the melancholy aspects of the story more then usual. I also remember thinking the actors were very good.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 12:38pm

It was set on a battleship. There were nurses involved to play the female roles (since women were not on battleships in WWII, Bogart had created a backstory about them being saved from a sinking hospital ship, but then she forgot to tell the audience the backstory). Everything in the design was made of things that might be found on a battleship. The dinosaur was made of tools - screwdrivers, hammers, pliers. This is the production/season that almost closed Trinity.

The gal is great at creating bizarre new pieces, but she has no idea how to tell a story. On The Town is a valentine to New York City; to set it anywhere else is just perverse.

As Sondheim said in the article referred to above, there are directors who think they know better than the writers. This kind of director uses a production to showcase him- or herself, rather than the piece.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 1:50pm

I think it was NYU that did "South Pacific" set in an old folks home.

And don't get me started on the all-girl lesbian "Grease". Obviously molded around Rizzo's line: "There are worse things I could do than go with a boy..."

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:33pm

Trinity Rep is my favorite company. I LOVE them. They try to engage with plays and ask what they have to tell us about life as we live it now. From Shakespeare to Simon and everything in between and beyond.

Their production of Paula Vogel's "The Long Christmas Ride Home" was one of the best things I have ever seen. Without access to Trinity, I probably would never have seen a production of "Homebody/Kabul."

When Oskar Eustis was artistic director, he mounted a production of "Angels in America" that was the only one I saw (out of many) that actually challenged the original Broadway production in my memory. It was intimate and breathtaking, and set the bar very high for the upcoming Signature presentation.

As for the Annie, (which I didn't see but which starred one of my very favorite of the Trinity actors, Fred Sullivan Jr. as Oliver Warbucks), Straus actually loved it, it was Adams who was adamantly against it.

I think daring companies try things, and sometimes they end up being told they've gone too far. I much prefer that over those companies that only play it safe.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:41pm

"which I didn't see but which starred one of my very favorite of the Trinity actors, Fred Sullivan Jr."

Oh Jayzus. I didn't know you were blind and deaf and lived in a plastic bubble.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 2:48pm

Punch and delete.

Goth who?

[myshikobit]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 3:11pm

That's delightful :) like, seriously, why not? I just loathe "Annie" ("pounds it" with romg)

[raker]

Posted: 5/24/10 at 9:43pm

I'm looking at my program for Bogart's On the Town. It has something called a Synopsis of Scenes. Act One: Brooklyn Navy Yard; a subway train; a New York street; Miss Turnstiles; A taxi cab; Museum of Natural History, and so on. A taxi cab on a battleship? There's nothing in the program to indicate a redefinition of the characters, or the action taking place on a battleship. Maybe Anne Bogart's notorious On the Town is just an urban legend.