ANNIE

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:00pm

I loved this show. Not heavy, not feeling it had to be politically correct, not about changing the world by hitting us over the head. A wonderfully uplifting show with good songs, some comedic and exciting performances, and a good time was had by nearly all.

Your opinions please, if you care to share?

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:02pm

ANNIE is one of those shows that if done wrong is horrible but if done right is very sweet and uplighting and funny.

It is also the start of Laurie Beechman's rise to Broadway/Cabaret fame.

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:05pm

I recall Sarah Jessica Parker as one of the orphans.

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:06pm

A Lot of younger actresses got their start in that show.

Sarah Jessica Parker was an Annie
so was the one girl on Kate and Allie
and I think some other actress too. I am sure if I looked up in one of the Broadway Yearbooks they put out it would have it in there.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:13pm

not to forget Andrea McArdle, of course. BO John, funny you mention Laurie. I didn't remeber her involvement with Annie.
She was from my area and holds a special place in my heart. Both Andrea & Laurie are from Philly/S Jersey and both played in Le Miz in '96, too. Two very talented ladies.

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:16pm

Andrea and one of the original orphans, Janine, signed a napkin for me when I met them one night in a restaurant. I still have the napkin in my ANNIE LP jacket. Funny the things one save.

Corny as it sounds, I happen to like "Tomorrow" an awful lot.

Yours for a Broadway full of tomorrows!

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:19pm

Laurie was Star-to-Be in the original production and was one of the Boylan Sisters.....

She is/was an amazing talent. I wish she could still be around so we could hear her takes on some of the shows that have come. She would have been an amazing AMNERIS (Strongest Suit would be awesome)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:20pm

I of course have that snobby poo-poo feeling whenever Annie is mentioned, and I don't think I have ever seen a production. But dang if I didn't well up during the Annie segment on Broadway's Lost Treasures.

OH! And I was a bellboy in my younger and more vulnerable years and the tour starring Harve Presnell was at the hotel I worked in. Lotsa precocious tots running around, some actually very nice parents... and a few sexy shaved headed understudies. Again, I had no idea at the time what a big deal Mr. Presnell was.

[kec]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:27pm

I think I saw this play three times, once with Andrea McArdle, and at least once with Sarah Jessica Parker as Annie. I really loved it. I thought Dorothy Loudon as Miss Hannigan was excellent,and I liked Reid Shelton as Daddy Warbucks.

Another actress who was in Annie was Alyssa Milano, and I think Danielle Brisbois, who was on Archie's Place, was in the show at one point as well. I think both actresses played the youngest orphan.

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:29pm

Your dead-on about Danielle. She was the youngest orphan.

[CourtneyM]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:31pm

i used to love annie! must have seen it 100 times when i was 4 (not broadway) i haven't seen it in so long.
i agree with BOJ if it is done wrong it's unbearable.
it's a shame there aren't many young broadway singers like andrea mcardle these days.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 8/24/03 at 11:33pm

Appearantly SJP and Andrea have remained good friends since their ANNIE days.

Cute show - I'm sorry in retrospect I never saw Betty Hutton as Miss Hannigan.

[cabarethed]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 12:23am

Ooh that's right, I keep forgetting Laurie Beechman was in it. Her sister was my 8th gr French teacher...she had one hell of a singing voice herself.

[ShineOn]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 12:31am

OMG, I would have KILLED to see Betty Hutton as Miss Hannigan. I adore Miss Hutton.

I love her "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurray." She was adorable! That's one of my fave songs to sing.

[PennyLou]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 12:39am

Alyssa Malino started out in the touring version of Annie as July. I really like the show it's cute I liked it better when I was little I always wanted to be one of the girls in it but my Mom want a stage mother i didn't get in to acting till I was to bight to be one of the girls so I was in the adult ensemble last year at one of the local community theater it was still fun but not as much to have been one of the girls I always wanted to be Pepper or Duffy.

Posted: 8/25/03 at 1:01am

Ever hear her sing Frank Loesser's "Hamlet?"

Its a scream of a number.

BB

Posted: 8/25/03 at 1:02am

Ever hear her sing Frank Loesser's "Hamlet?"

Its a scream of a number.

BB

[Becky]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 1:34am

I absolutely love the stage version and especially the movie. I thought someone was going to have to smack me out of my excitement when I met Aileen Quinn after a performance of Saturday Night Fever -- although she didn't help matters because she got all excited with us. I was just about her age, so I grew up wanting to be her - acting out the movie to my soundtrack in my bedroom.

Geez, the things we admit to.

Here is a great site for anyone interested in the past productions of ANNIE.....and quite a few of the performers from the stage and movie frequent the message board which is kind of interesting....

Annie Orphans website

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 1:45am

a.) I enjoy this show and the YTV film version with Alicia Morton. Whoever decided to do the God-awful 80s film version sgoiuld be shot.

b.) "I loved this show. Not heavy, not feeling it had to be politically correct, not about changing the world by hitting us over the head. A wonderfully uplifting show with good songs, some comedic and exciting performances, and a good time was had by nearly all."
that sounds VERY familiar......oh, wait! You just described Hairspray as well.... the reasons you say it is a crap show.

[TheBalladeer]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 10:31am

I LOVE Annie, I just did a production of it this past winter, and it was a blast. I went into the production thinking that it was going to be really corny - although I did like the movie with Aileen Quinn when I was younger.

However, the stage version is so much better than any movie incarnation of it. Yes, the stage version has it's heartwarming and uplifting moments, and the cutesy scenes, but there is also so much more - a lot of commentary on politics and history, and it is all so interesting. One of my favorite numbers, "Hooverville" is so historically accurate and filled with commentary on the politics of the time, that you would wonder if you were watching the right show.

Laurie Beechman was wonderful as the Star-To-Be. Her voice was incredible...one of the best belts I have ever heard. I am sorry that she is no longer with us. And her voice was/is so very distinguishable. And of course Andrea McArdle and the rest of the cast were superb in the original production as well.

I saw the recent revival which had the wonderful Nell Carter as Hannigan and Sutton Foster as Star-To-Be, but it didn't touch the magical original production. And I was disheartened to find out they had cut "Hooverville"...the one number that helped get rid of the notion that "Annie" was just a cutesy kiddie show.

Cheers,
The Balladeer

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 11:20am

Anyone remember all the flap when the revival came around? The original Annie got canned. Andrea McCardle was interviewed and said how horrible it was. Nobody mentioned that McCardle herself was a pre-Broadway replacement.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 11:45am

Yeah, but the big difference is that Kristin Vigard didn't win a contest promising her that she would be the new Annie. (An early version of When American Idol Goes Wrong?) She then became an Annie understudy and not long after went into the Hair revival. Which struck me as shocking at the time. I'm not sure why I know this stuff, but it got stuck in my brain back then and, apparently, stayed there.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 11:49am

Cabarethed~ That's Claudia Beachman, right? She's does a fab. cabaret in French and has a few solo CD's ( I've not heard them,though). Where did you have her as a teacher? WOW! These wonderful Beachman memories!

Posted: 8/25/03 at 12:01pm

They did a duet on her final cd (Laurie's) that is one of my all time favorite songs. "If We Only Have Love"

[lass]

Posted: 8/25/03 at 12:11pm

When I saw it in Chicago a long time ago, Sandy pooped on the stage.