Annie - The Generational Divide

[LEStheatreGuy]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 11:29am

Are you under 35? Did you grow up watching the Carol Burnett film version of ANNIE? Don't you think it's a great movie musical?

I have been repeatedly shocked to learn how little respect it got from musical theatre fans of the older generations.

I understand that we youngsters mostly missed out on the Feiffer-esque cartooniness of the original Broadway production and some swell musical comedy numbers (not to mention the inspired brilliance of Dorothy Loudon and the luscious belting of Andrea MacArdle) but we got in their place a contemporary movie musical that, along with Little Shop, held up the quality of the genre alone for over twenty years plus a host of terrific performances including Burnett, Albert Finney, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, etc.

Thoughts?

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 11:32am

It's ok.

It's been a while since i've seen it, I remember it being darker, which I liked, being in the Great Depression and all.


I specifically remember that some of the orchestrations make me want to kill myself.

[Pippin]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 11:39am

I love that movie, and have ever since I was a little kid. sure, it may not be a great film, but I love it, and Carol Burnett is priceless in the movie.

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 11:43am

I love the movie too, and that's weird, because I absolutely despise Annie. Maybe I've just seen one too many junior high production... but I do love Carol Burnett.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 11:59am

For those of us lucky enough to see Annie on stage first, the movie was a huge disappointment. If it was all you knew of Annie, I can see how it became a favorite childhood movie, but it lost SO much of the charm of the stage version. The staging of many of the numbers was diminished in quality by poor editing for one thing. I particulaly remember that "Hard Knock Life," which was a huge crowd-pleaser live, was a big dud (again, comparitively) in the film. The whole film really suffered in comparison. I expect that the same will be said years from now about the films of Phantom, Rent, and Producers.

[JLSatUD]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:00pm

That movie is my favorite favorite favorite. I have even been known to put it on while I'm cleaning the house. :) It makes me laugh though, because Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, and Bernadette Peters have done and achieved so much in their lifes and I will only ever see them as Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily! The first time I saw Erin Brockovich I was trying to make Albert Finney look "right" cause he had so much hair in that movie. :)

I do wish I was a few years older and had seen it with the original people on broadway ... but a theater near my beach house on LBI used to do the stage show almost every summer when I was little and a girl from my middle school did the touring production several years ago so I saw that a few times. But yes I do feel like I missed out on the beginnin, too!

[justagirl2]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:11pm

I've only seen it a couple times, a long time ago, but I liked it. I remember Carol Burnett perfectly...she made a huge impression. I'm definitely not a fan of the musical, but the movie didn't completely disappoint, which is weird.

[Pippin]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:25pm

this is sort of a thread jack, but why didn't they cast Andrea McArdle in the film? did she look too old by the time the film was made?

Updated On: 12/27/05 at 12:25 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:26pm

By the time the movie came out, Andrea was about 19. Definitely too old to play the role.

Having seen the original Broadway production, the movie was quite a let down.

[Pippin]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:33pm

wow!! I didnt' realize there was such a gap from the play to the screen. well she would definately have been a bit too old!!! I am also one of those not born to have seen the original on stage, so the movie was my first impression, and with nothing to compare it to back then, I loved it, and it sort of has become the definitive version for me, because I have yet to see a stage production or listen to the broadway cd.

[sanda]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:35pm

I saw the stage version first, though in a small dinner theatre. Like it very much.

The movie is ok. Not bad but not great either.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 12:56pm

I have to admit...this movie was an obession for me as a kid. But even then, I HATED the whole "Annie climbs up the drawbridge up to the highest point and almost falls off and has to be resuced by helicopter" ending. Even at age 10 I realized that they were doing that just because it was a movie and more dramatic!

Not that it stopped my friends and I from loving the movie. In fact, a bunch of us even dressed up as "the cast of Annie" for Halloween one year. Try explaining "Miss Hannigan" as a costume to your 5th grade teacher....especially when Annie, Sandy and the orphans weren't in your class!

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 1:15pm

I saw the Broadway tour of "Annie" when I was in college and was extremely excited when they said it was being adapted into a movie. I was VERY letdown when I saw the movie. "Easy Street" is such a great number and I felt like the movie adaptation of it GREATLY let the source material down -- and the vaudville gags (foot through the wall, running into the doorway, etc.) were cheesy. The change in the key for that number was a total sellout. As much as I love Ann Reinking, I didn't like how the character of Grace was made into a "dancing" role instead of a "singing" role. It just didn't make sense for Grace to be a husky alto instead of a lyric soprano -- doesn't fit the character properly. All the changes to the plot just didn't work for me. Perhaps if I only knew the movie I would feel different, but I doubt it.

[Joe Mike2]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 3:14pm

I'm sorry but I thought Carol Burnett was just awful as Miss Hannigan. I usually love her but she just didn't work for me. Finney was fine and the Annie was OK. Bernadette and Tim were good. But what was really wrong with the movie was the director. He had never done a musical before and it showed. It moves so slowly. The TV movie version is better but none can beat that original B'way version which was stunning.

[Joe Mike2]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 3:14pm

I'm sorry but I thought Carol Burnett was just awful as Miss Hannigan. I usually love her but she just didn't work for me. Finney was fine and the Annie was OK. Bernadette and Tim were good. But what was really wrong with the movie was the director. He had never done a musical before and it showed. It moves so slowly. The TV movie version is better but none can beat that original B'way version which was stunning.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 3:19pm

I'm with ChrisLovesShows. I'm well under 35 and despise the original Annie movie. I saw the show onstage before I saw the movie, and I adored it. I saw this movie years a few years later and I thought it was horrible in comparison. I disliked all the changes that were made to the characters and plot, I hate that they altered the musical numbers, and a few good acting performances can't help that.

I prefer the Disney TV movie to this bastardization.

[JoMarch]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 3:25pm

I'm under 35. I thought it was terrible when I saw it as a kid and still do.

[JenD512]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 3:48pm

When the "Annie" movie was released, I was 8, and my sister was 6. The two of us, not to mention every other little girl on our block, was OBSESSED with that movie. We saw it in the theater twice, played the record incessantly, and when it hit HBO a year later, we watched every showing we could (this was before any of us had a VCR).

To this day...

-I'm still not used to seeing Albert Finney with hair.

-I re-read "The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe" this year, and found my old Annie stickers inside the front cover.

-My sister and I still refer to the drawbridge on Rte 280 in NJ as "the Annie bridge" without realizing we're saying it. (that's where they filmed the movie)

It was years later when I found out what a flop the movie was and that the theater people didn't like it at all. I also remember there was a little movie called "ET" that was released that same summer (which we also obsessed over).

The worst critical response I read was when one of the producers said he "wanted this movie on his tombstone" because he thought it was so good. One critic said "Funeral services begin Friday at a theater near you." Ouch.

I had never seen the stage show (my only B'way show then was 'Peter Pan'), but back then I had a few friends who did, and even they liked the movie better.

I have watched it recently, because of course, I had to have the DVD when it came out...and omg, it's total cheese. But it still just holds that nostalgic place in my heart.

It also gave me a healthy philosophy on dealing with critics. My philosophy? "Oh shut up, I liked it!" :P

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 6:22pm

Hey JenD...did you have the Annie movie sticker book? The one where you bought the book and then the stickers came in packs of 5, sort of like baseball cards. I remember hounding my mother to go to the drug store so I could buy another pack. And then when you got close to the end, you could mail away and request only the stickers you needed to finish the book, which of course I did...LOL

Although, once ET came out, it was always a tough decision to decide if I was going to spend my money on stickers for the ET book or the Annie book.

[JLSatUD]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 6:29pm

Probably shouldn't admit this, but the only copy of Annie that I own was taped off of HBO by my grandfather, who was special enough to have cable, HBO, and a VCR in the early 80's. :) The VHS tape it's on easily weighs what 3 or 4 tapes weigh now. I will probably get the DVD at some point but it's sentimental to watch 10 seconds of a random caveman movie before going to blurry Annie credits and finally the clear movie. :)

[roquat]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 6:46pm

It's an honest effort, but wrong-headed. They made it more Disney and more kiddie-oriented, and left out the dark side of the story. And that Annie was the opposite of touching--everyone I knew who saw the movie chanted "Fall! Fall! Fall!" at the ending.

Side note--I just worked on a production of this show, and they cast a belting Grace, thinking the songs were in the Ann Reinking key. Then they had to bring everything down for her (without making Warbucks grumble everything.) An experience.

[DivaBrigader]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 7:28pm

I grew up on the Broadway cast album and my parents taped the movie off of cable for me one day when I was about 6 and even at that age, I hated it. I said that the musical didn't have Annie escaping over a bridge and even though it was a simplistic criticism, I still agree with the sentiment. I read somewhere that John Huston hated the song "Tomorrow" so much that he refused to have it in it's traditional place (when Annie escapes from the orphanage and finds Sandy). That should have been the first clue that it wasn't going to be good. I thought Carol Burnett was a hoot though and easily the best part of the movie. The Disney version has its flaws too but is overall a better adaptation.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 8:16pm

I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 8:27pm

in my 19 and a half years i have had 3 very different views on this movie.
upon first viewing i loved it
then in middle school my musical theater class was forced to watch it (the entire class was simply "watch this movie musical, take a test, then stage your own version of a pre-selected song from the soundtrack) and i started to dislike it.
then i got cast in the show (i read for warbucks haveing no idea how dumb screaming "Puuuuunjaaaab!!!" during my reading looked) after doing the show 9and loving the song nyc) i started hating the movie

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 12/27/05 at 9:26pm

Oh, I was all aboutthis movie as a child, Since I had curls, I was called "Annie" and I distinctly remember tap-dancing in my kitchen trying to get the steps down!!