Lena Waithe, Debbie Allen develping musical adaptation of Disney film POLLY

Waithe & Michael Benjamin Washington co-writing book, music and lyrics by Siedah Garrett and Joriah Kwamé; direction & choreography by Debbie Allen

I agree 100%. I remain a diehard fan of the original Pollyanna, which David Swift never got enough credit for. It's a remarkably unsentimental story (at least until it's 3rd act) about a stranger coming to town with a clear-eyed new prism on just about everything. The story is filled with fascinating relevance, the town oligarch, Aunt Polly controlling all social services and even a church's weekly messaging. If you watch it today, it's startling in its portrayal of small town fighting to honor its citizens' denied democratic values. Karl Malden is brilliant as the minister owned by the oligarchy.

But if the story is made reductive and simplistic, if it's focused on feel-good-ism, it's just Annie with a different plot construct, and a watered Annie is hardly what we need. Maybe the new version will work. But if Aunt Polly becomes just another unloved woman who needs a child to open up - it's not exactly fresh (or feminist). Stories about the childless finding their hearts with an interloping surrogate feel factory-made. Give us some depth; Pollyanna is as much about a town cowed by a power trip. Maybe the new team will find new layers. It's a story that is decidedly stage worthy.

Updated On: 6/4/25 at 08:25 PM