Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
What: Stage musical
Where: The Rose, 2001 Farnam St.
When: Tonight through Dec. 20; 7 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Tickets: $16 all seats, discount vouchers at Hy-Vee Supermarkets
Information: 345-4849
Leapin' lizards, those kids are — aw, gee — terrific!
We're talking about the chorus of little-girl orphans in “Annie — the Musical,” which opens tonight at the Rose Theater. Claire Booton, Darbi Mercer, Emma Kate Brown, Gigi Hausman, Eden Ginsberg and Mary Beth Becker are the highlights of this eye-catching, toe-tapping show. Every single one of them is a charmer who gets her moment in the spotlight.
And when we say that, we don't mean to take anything away from Annie herself — played at a Wednesday night preview by Ashton Taylor, and on alternate nights by Lizzy Fleissner. Taylor has a great big voice and a smile to match, and she'd melt an iceberg singing heart-tugging songs of hope like “Maybe” and the show's anthem, “Tomorrow.”
Nor is there a single klinker in the bunch of featured adults in the show.
Danielle Smith oozes malevolence with an oily kind of charm as nasty old Miss Hannigan, who runs her orphanage reeking of booze and self-pity as she snarls at her little charges.
Michael Harrelson, as Miss Hannigan's brother Rooster, and Leanne Hill Carlson, as his floozy Lily St. Regis, also exude funny business with flair to spare as they dream of swindling Daddy Warbucks and claiming Annie as their little girl. High-stepping, high-energy “Easy Street” is another high point of the show.
Michael Wilhelm makes a teddy bear of a Daddy Warbucks, in fine baritone voice on “NYC” and “I Don't Need Anything but You.” Wendy Eaton is also warm and wonderful as Grace Farrell, Daddy Warbucks' secretary.
But the girls are the spark that again and again brings this show alive. Watch them zip through clever, challenging choreography by Sue Gillespie Booton on “You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” and you realize the song is true. These kids look like they're having the time of their young lives up there, beaming from ear to ear, as they belt out a tuneful score. Loved the floor-scrubbing number, “Hard Knock Life,” almost as much, and they lead the curtain-call reprise of “Tomorrow” as well.
The show's biggest downside is that it's wedded to pre-recorded music. Music director Kevin Smith has prepared his cast well to jump in on the right beat and note, but some of the tempos — notably “Something Was Missing” and “Little Girls” — dragged. And while director James Larson runs a tight, well-paced ship nearly all night, slow cues spoiled a radio-studio scene that could have been funnier.
A policewoman heckling audience members from the center aisle was fun at first but went on too long, stealing the spotlight from what should have been a touching moment onstage.
Microphones were temperamental, and the show was light on scenery for such a large playing area. Even for this Depression-era comic strip story, it looked sparse up there. But, to be fair, you need some open space when Daddy Warbucks' 18 maids and three manservants zip in and out on big, old-fashioned production numbers such as “I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here.”
In the end, holiday audiences will forgive the flaws and cheer Annie and those cheerful chorus kids, who take the gray and chill off any old tomorrow.
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
