Q about the original B'way run of Annie

Definitly Alison Smith as Annie. Not sure about the others. You could check a Best Plays volume from the time. They were pretty good about dates and cast replacements. Ghostley was the first replacement for Loudon but did come back a few times.

Thanks for the info. IBDB has a woman named Delores Wilson playing Miss Hannigan starting in Sept of 1979, but I seem to recall thinking "Hey! That's the lady from Bewitched!". At the time I was 9 so the memory is somewhat dim!!

Updated On: 4/22/12 at 10:57 PM

Just going by the dates listed on ibdb.com (which are often very incomplete for replacements)

Allison Smith started playing Annie on January 29, 1980, so you may have seen Sarah Jessica Parker. If I'm remembering my chronology correctly she was the third Annie, and Allison Smith was the fourth and final girl to play it on Broadway.

Alice Ghostley is listed as having started performances August of 78 with Dolores Wilson starting August of 79, so it appears that Alice Ghostley would have been out of the show by January of 1980, though I don't know if she stepped back in at any point after August of 1979.

No dates are listed on ibdb for the various replacements for Warbucks, so hopefully somebody with a good memory of that time can fill in some blanks (and of course correct any Annie and Hannigan information, like I said, dates on ibdb for replacements are not always 100% accurate)

IBDB lists Dolores Wilson starting as Hannigan in August 1979 and Betty Hutton took over in Sept 1980. If Wilson was signed to two 6 month contracts or even a 1 year contract, you would have seen her.
Link

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http://www.ovrtur.com/role/100173322

Ghostley came back at the very end of January according to my research. It's possible she may have come back a bit early, I know that has happened.

ETA: Fixed the link

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Updated On: 4/22/12 at 11:26 PM

OOps, sorry Jordan! Fixed it! (That's my end of it, the input end)

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I saw Annie in early June 1980. Alice Ghostly definitely played Miss Hannigan. I no longer have the Playbill so I can't tell you who played Annie or Daddy Warbucks.

AEA AGMA SA, Alyson Kirk was the last actress to play Annie.

I saw both Andrea McArdle and Sarah Jessica Parker. I'm sorry I didn't see Allison Smith, but I saw Alyson Kirk play the role at Westport Country Playhouse.

In terms of Miss Hannigan's, I saw Dorothy Loudon, Alice Ghostley and Delores Wilson.

On a side note, I have a picture of me and SJP at the stagedoor. My best friend at the time asked if we could see her dressing room and I remember being taken up an elevator to a very tiny room decorated with black and white Annie comic strip fabric.

oops, Leadingplayer, we were posting the same info at the same time.

Here's a link to the final Broadway cast poster (Lynne Wintersteller from Closer Than Ever/Grand Night for Singing was in the final cast).

Annie Cast List

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Updated On: 4/23/12 at 06:01 AM

Since the show arrived on Broadway in April 1977, I saw the show at least twice a year until it closed. In September 1980, Allison Smith was Annie, Alice Ghostley was Miss Hannigan, John Schuck was Daddy Warbucks, future stand-up comic Rita Rudner was Lily St. Regis and Gary Beach was Rooster.