Annie @ PNC Bank ‘Broadway at the Bass’
Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade
—Jan Farrington
How nice to see a musical workhorse like Annie done right—really right.
At Bass Performance Hall only through this week, the national touring company of Annie reminds us of everything we loved from the start about this 1977 classic, a straight-outta-Dickens story of an orphan who journeys from lost to found, lonely to loved, rags to riches—with a message of hope, of getting through tough times, that still feels like something we need to hear.
Three cheers for the center of the show’s fun and heart, young Ellie Rose Pulsifer, whose spirited performance, tough-girl dance style, and great big voice give us an Annie to remember. (She holds the last note of “Tomorrow” until our eyes get wide.) A “bit with a dog” never hurts, and Sandy (played by rescue dogs Addison and Georgie) is awww-some.
The other orphans are great dancers too (choreography by Patricia Wilcox), and manage to be both tough cookies and cutie-pies. Miss Hannigan (Stefanie Londino) is as Horrible as you want her to be, and her sidekicks (brother Rooster and his girlfriend Lily) are played with sleazy charm by Nick Bernardi and Krista Curry. Oliver (“Daddy”) Warbucks, played by Christopher Swan, is a hard-nosed tycoon at the start, but no match for Annie’s melt-your-heart personality—no surprise to his warm-hearted assistant Grace (Julie Nicole Hunter), who sees right away that he and Annie need each other.
The actors with smaller roles bring them to vivid life—a tribute to their talent and good direction both. For just a few moments, we meet laundry man Bundles (Andrew Scoggin) who gives Annie a chance to escape from the orphanage; hard-hit jobless workers living in a Depression shantytown, with Sophie (Leeanna Rubin) at the soup kettle; a just-arrived “Star to Be” (Jataria Heyward) who gets a moment in the NYC spotlight; and servants at the Warbucks mansion who really care about Annie. And of course, there’s a President with a jaunty smile (FDR, played engagingly by Mark Woodard) and lots of historical figures in fun, short cameo roles.
Annie is directed by Jenn Thompson, who (fun fact) played one of the orphans in the original Broadway show. Music director Elaine Davidson and a lively band are in the pit on keyboards, drums, violin and reeds—but also on instruments whose names take us back to an earlier American music sound: cornet, flugelhorn, euphonium, Sousaphone. What fun! Wilson Chin’s set design is nimble and atmospheric, and Alejo Vietti’s costumes are period-perfect—the washed-out colors of the orphans’ clothes changing to the vivid tones of Annie’s posh life with Warbucks.
We never knew, did we, that Little Orphan Annie taught Franklin Roosevelt a thing or two: mainly, that digging America out of the Depression would call for lots of optimism and heart, and a belief that “the sun will come out tomorrow”—or if not, some day real soon.
WHEN: Through April 2 (PNC Bank ‘Broadway at the Bass’ series)
WHERE: Bass Performance Hall, Fort Worth TX
WEB: basshall.com
