Annie – Hull New Theatre

Some productions are so effortlessly professional and polished, it’s easy to forget they are that way because of all the hard work put into them, by everyone concerned – on stage and off.

Effortlessly professional and polished perfectly describes the West End smash hit, Annie, which started its run at the Hull New Theatre on Tuesday night.

Long before the 7.30pm start time the stage was set for us to view, giving us a glimpse of beds sparsely covered and over-lit with industrial-type lamps.

This cold, prison-like scene is home to the world’s most famous orphan, Annie, and six of her chums, all under the “care” of the oft inebriated Miss Hannigan, in a New York orphanage.

The year is 1933, during America’s Great Depression, and 11-year-old, red-haired Annie (the absolutely amazing Bibi Stockley-Webster) doesn’t feel or act like an orphan, fervently believing her parents will one day come to claim her. After all, she has worn half of a silver locket all of her short life, hoping her real parents hold the matching half.Her attitude truly irritates Miss Hannigan (the very amusing and multi-talented Claire Sweeney, of Coronation Street fame) who makes it her mission in life to heap as much misery as she can upon the poor girl.

Packing her meagre possessions, the orphan escapes, only to be dragged back by tough cop, Lt Ward (just one of three roles for Carl Sanderson). But not before she has befriended, or been befriended by, a cute dog she names Sandy (Dizzy in real life).

Sandy soon becomes a favourite with the audience, running back and forth between scenes as well as behaving impeccably amid scenes of singing and shouting.

One day a visitor to the orphanage, a very smart lady called Grace Farrell (Tanisha-Mae Brown), comes with a request for one of the orphans to spend a few fairytale weeks at Christmas at the home of her employer, New York billionaire, Oliver Warbucks (Alex Bourne).

Much to Miss Hannigan’s disgust, Annie loudly makes herself known to Miss Farrell and very soon is on her way to a, possibly short-lived, life of luxury.

She soon has all the billionaire’s staff – very smart maids, chauffeur, butler, cook etc – eating out of the palm of her hand and Miss Farrell and Oliver Warbucks soon come to love her.

However, the only Christmas present Annie wants is to find her real mother and father and, with sadness, the billionaire uses all of his influence, including a very amusing TV appearance and a plea (or an order) to wheelchair-bound President Roosevelt (Carl Sanderson) himself, to find them.

The offer of a $50,000 reward soon brings hundreds of parents out of the woodwork, but none have the matching locket.

This is where Miss Hannigan’s hatred of Annie reaches its peak. Along with her no-good younger brother, small-time con artist, Rooster (Christian Cooper) and his latest broad, Lily (Amber Kennedy), they hatch a plan to get their hands on the reward, just as Daddy Warbucks, as Annie now calls him, is about to adopt the red-haired orphan.

But do they succeed

All night long, in this amazing production, we were treated to the most wonderful music, played live by a front-of-stage orchestra directed by Nick Tudor, accompanying marvelous singing voices from everyone on stage, especially that of young Stockley-Webster as Annie, whose voice never wavered throughout. The most beautiful singing voice on the night came from Brown as Grace Farrell. She also looked very beautiful.

Unforgettable songs such as, my favourite, It’s A Hard Knock Life (sung with gusto by the young orphans, who also danced and performed like stage stars of the future. Bravo all), Easy Street (drunkenly and very amusingly sung by Sweeney, Cooper and Kennedy), I Don’t Need Anything But You and, of course, Tomorrow (another fantastic performance by Stockley-Webster).

All this on an amazing stage setting bedecked throughout with twinkling lights and huge jigsaw pieces hung aloft. According to director, Nikolai Foster, these represented “a metaphor for Annie’s life as she journeys through New York and tries to put together the pieces of her life”.

Scenes were shifted in the blink of an eye, from the drear orphanage, to New York streets, to Warbucks’ mansion et al.

Costumes varied from rags to riches and everything in between, especially on the 1930s streets of the Big Apple.

And in between Annie’s trials we were treated to the most amazing tap dance sequences from top-class performers.

At the finale, when the cast were showered in gold ticker tape, the audience rose as one to give everyone involved the prolonged standing ovation they all thoroughly deserved. Theatrical perfection.

Annie runs until Sunday, September 13th, 2026, at Hull New Theatre with tickets available from www.hulltheatres.co.uk and (01482) 300306.

Reviewer: Jackie Foottit

Reviewed: 8th September 2026

North West End UK Rating: