Annie Archives - North West End UK

17Jul

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

Annie – Storyhouse, Chester

Tip Top productions have returned to the Storyhouse, this time with the classic musical, Annie, 33 years after the company first produced the show. With Direction from Phil Cross, we follow the journey of an 11-year-old orphan, Annie, who dreams that one day her parents will return to the orphanage for her and makes it her mission to find them. In the meantime, billionaire Oliver Warbucks and his assistant Grace Farrell are looking for an orphan to spend the holidays at their home, and this is where Annie’s story takes a turn. In the titular role, Emily Allerston shines while leading the company through this journey. With bags of confidence, energy and powerful vocals, we know we are in safe hands from the second she enters the stage. Allerston’s version of “Tomorrow” was beautifully...

30Apr

By Kathryn GortonNo Comments

North West

Annie – George Lawton Hall

As someone who fell in love with Annie as a child—watching it at the cinema, singing along and knowing every line, every lyric, and every character, intimately—this reviewer came to Mossley AODS’s production with both deep affection and high expectations. A lifelong fan of the original movie version, I’m well aware that the stage musical differs in places—some of the iconic songs are swapped out, the pacing is different—but at its core, Annie remains a story rooted in resilience. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s Great Depression, Annie’s journey from a grim orphanage to the luxurious world of billionaire Oliver Warbucks is a stirring metaphor for hope amidst hardship. The character of Annie stands as a beacon of optimism in a world clouded by economic despair which is sounding like a ...

23Sep

By David S ClarkeNo Comments

North West

Annie – Stockport Plaza

I think just about everyone will be familiar with the tale of Little Orphan Annie and the rags to riches story which covered the life of this young girl and her friends from the orphanage where she was brought up. The word that often comes to mind when thinking about this musical is “cute”, but this production moved beyond that. There were times when you didn’t realise that you were watching a cast of mostly pre-teens as the maturity and professionalism of these young girls was amazing. I must start by praising the star of the show, the young girl who played the title role of the production. I have seen a number of versions of this show over the years and the performance of Zara Bateson as Annie was up there with the best of them. You knew that this was going to be something out of the ...

24Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Annie – Hull New Theatre

What a fabulous, uplifting start to the week - all thanks to a cute, little, red-haired orphan called Annie, whose story is told in a production of the same name. A jam-packed Hull New Theatre was the setting on Monday evening for this smash-hit show, which has come direct from London’s West End. At curtain up, the stage featured metal bedsteads and sparse bedding, in an orphanage run by the drunken, cruel Miss Hannigan (Craig Revel Horwood). With unkempt hair, make-up, sloppy negligee and a fridge-full of booze, the Strictly Come Dancing star is perfection in the role, bringing much hilarity to proceedings as well as a fine singing voice. Equally perfect in her role is young Zoe Akinyosade as Annie, who is on stage for over two hours - no mean feat for a nine-year-old. With a ...

20Sep

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

North West

Annie – Manchester Opera House

The story of orphan Annie originates from a 1924 comic strip called Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, lyricist Martin Charnin approached author Thomas Meehan to write the book of a musical, a wise choice considering his many successes since, with awards for co-writing The Producers, Hairspray, also writing the books for the musicals, Elf, and Young Frankenstein amongst others. Meehan created Annie, using some of the characters from the comic strip, but added to them, using Charles Dickens’ orphan characters as inspiration, which worked well with the musical being set at the time of the Great Depression of 1929. Lyricist Charnin, would then work with composer Charles Strouse, using Meehan’s book as the framework for Annie. We join Annie (Sharangi Gnanavarathan) and her frie...

7Jun

By Emma LambeNo Comments

North West

Annie – Liverpool Empire

This timeless classic is about Annie who’s a confident, fiery 11 girl waiting for her parents to come rescue her from Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Set in the 1930’s during the Great Depression Annie’s optimism shines through when she’s chosen to spend Christmas with famous billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Of course, Annie is delighted to spend time away from scrubbing the floors and sets out to search for her real family. Knowing there’s a $50,000 reward to find Annie’s real parents, Miss Hannigan hatches a plan with her crony brother to reap the benefits. Any musical that you recognise the songs from without having seen it before shows that it’s iconic. My foot was tapping along with the orphan girls polished rendition of ‘It’s the hard knock life’, if you’ll pardon the pun. This w...

10May

By Grace AnnabelNo Comments

North West

Annie – Regent Theatre

Annie, a classic musical adaptation much loved by global audiences. I had the privilege of watching the musical adaptation of this classic film on its UK Tour, in the large-scale Stoke Regent Stage. With countless revivals, I was intrigued to see how this show has evolved and adapted since the last time I watched this production, many years ago. The tone was set from the beginning, by our 7 main orphanage residents rushing onto stage, before the show had even begun, immersing our audience in their harsh reality from the outset and creating an electric build-up within the theatre. With direction from Nikolai Foster and choreography from Nick Winston, I knew before the show begun, that we were in the comfortable hands of true professionals. Having been many years since visiting the gra...

6Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

East Midlands

Annie – Alexandra Theatre

No One Cares For You a Smidge When You’re In An Orphanage Well, that’s the first production of “Annie” I’ve seen that ended with the theme tune to “Blankety Blank” - and for very good and poignant reasons. Read to the end to find out why… Like the Allied Carpets sale which never ended “Annie” is out on tour as if it were ever not on tour. Endless generations of kids have been weened on the show and the demand never seems to wane. It’s a staunch Broadway warhorse which has been inflicting its schmaltz on unsuspecting and, indeed, suspecting audiences since 1977 when it was wrenched kicking and screaming from a newspaper comic strip and thrust upon the Broadway to wild, unstinting and, it seems, endless acclaim. We gave them “Oliver!” they reupholstered him, changed his sex and gave hi...

22Mar

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Annie – Edinburgh Playhouse

What a show! The sun may come out tomorrow, but you should go see ‘Annie’ today! It follows the story of an optimistic young orphan trying to find her way in New York’s Great Depression. Based on a 1924 comic script “little orphan Annie” by Harold Gray, the Ambassador Theatre Group really brought the performance to life with catchy songs, cheeky humour and captivating choreography. All performers had a lot of chemistry and really brought the characters to life - we all had a particular sweet spot for the kind Mr Warbucks whose kindness really moved the audience. Paul O’Grady was captivating as Miss Hannigan with sass and his own particular brand of humour. All the child actors were extremely talented and surely have a bright future ahead of them and hit all the complicated choreography. Ho...