20 – 25 November
It would be right to start with the kids. Led tonight by a zestful Sharangi Gnanavarathan in her professional stage debut as Annie, she and the troupe of six ‘orphans’ – Molly, Pepper, July, Duffy, Tessie and Kate – delivered a barnstorming performance that had the 8-12-year-olds in the audience singing along, no doubt longing for a chance to realise their own theatrical dreams on a stage the size of a tennis court. To say they put their all into their performances would be an understatement, dance moves crackled, singing was powerful and in synch. Choreographer Nick Winston must be a happy man.
Unfortunate then that this evening’s performance was marred by some excruciatingly high PA sound levels, especially in the first half. The dials seem to have been set on maximum treble which had the effect of merging all the girls’ voices into sometimes undecipherable high-pitched screams. They deserved better. Was the production team really wanting us to rear back holding our ears as some of us were doing? And when Craig Revel Horwood as the gin-soaked Miss Hannigan began blowing a whistle to instil order into his/her orphaned charges, there was a very real danger of losing one’s hearing altogether.
The story of Annie can at times be clunky and mawkish, peopled by stereotypes following a Cinderella-type theme in which one impoverished young girl is lifted from poverty by an uber-rich man. The show was originally adapted from a cartoon strip created in 1924 by Harold Gray, a conservative-thinking American not averse to suggesting that children should be put to work rather than have them “hanging around street corners doing nothing”. He apparently met a little girl by the name of Annie on the streets of New York who so impressed him with her savviness that it inspired his 40-year career as a comic artist.
The show follows a typical pattern in the original strip in which Annie’s escape from the orphans’ home is threatened and her subsequent search for her real parents leaves her in danger of further peril.
It’s a time of unbridled patriarchy, where billionaire Oliver, later Daddy Warbucks, played with great stature by Alex Bourne, has dedicated his life to progressing up the greasy pole at the expense of any emotional life – a Scrooge-like figure, who like the Dickensian character has a Damascene moment near Christmas. You’d be forgiven for wanting a storyline like this to become a museum piece. Unfortunately, its relevance seems to be increasing.
Po-faced judge of Strictly Come Dancing, Revel Horwood would seem a good pick for the role of the awful Miss Hannigan, an embittered and frustrated woman running an orphanage. But falling somewhere between pantomime dame and a raddled version of Miss Trunchbull without the same degree of menace, Revel Horwood seemed more at home in his dance moves than his ability to really connect with his audience, although a Hippodrome audience out to enjoy itself gave him a generous cheer at the end. Surprise surprise, he has a great singing voice! He didn’t quite capture a ‘fourth wall’ opportunity when the scenery he was sitting on started, ludicrously, to move sideways on its own. It was the wonderfully gifted Amelia Adams as Grace Farrell who seized the opportunity to throw in an unscripted line that brought a belly laugh from the audience. Later, it would be Paul French as the dastardly Rooster, criminal brother of Hannigan, and his ‘moll’ Lily (Billie-Kay) who would inject palpable evil around Annie’s fragile existence.
You’ll find lots of showbusiness razzmatazz in Annie. If that’s your thing you’ll enjoy this show. There are immaculate dance moves by the Swing team and ensemble, and an animated 8-piece orchestra pumps out the tunes. And let’s not forget Sandy the dog, who I thought should be wearing protective ear muffs like the rest of us!
★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop, 21 November 2023
Photo credit: Paul Coltas
