‘Annie’ if you didn’t know, is set in the 1930’s in NYC America, deep in the depression, which means more children than normal were being abandoned being put into care. So here in Nottingham this week at Theatre Royal we have been treated to ‘Annie’, with a great cast and great production.
The characters of Annie are compelling, Annie the heroine of our story, with her needed brave exterior and soft centre with every child’s need to be wanted and loved. This same need is present too in Oliver ‘daddy’ Warbucks the hero. What is it you liked Annie, about billionaire Oliver Warbuck? No don’t be cynical, it turns out he has a heart of gold.
In musicals the songs are obviously pivotal, the lyrics telling the story, ‘It’s a Hardknock Life’, ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Easy life’, the cast did the score credit as did their dance routines, both professional and charming. When I saw Annie three years ago at Theatre Royal, Lesley Joseph was Mrs Hannigan, the drunk caretaker of the orphanage girls, this week though we had Craig Revel Horwood, maybe that’s why the dance routines were sharper this time round.
Craig was in top form and loving the role, he went down a storm. Annie and the orphans are being played by three separate teams, last night it was team Rockefeller, our ‘Annie’ ,Freya Yates was exceptional as was little Molly, Honey Rose Quinn, who was just delightful. The audience loved it when we first got to see Sandy the labradoodle, the stray dog that Annie befriends, who every now and then would obediently streak across the stage.
America, needed an inspiration in the 1930’s during the depression, a character like the energetic Annie’s could have been behind Mr Roosevelt renewed optimism, of his ‘new deal’ based on the rhetoric ‘relief, recovery and reform’. Lets hope we too soon have a new leader that has inspiration, but its going to be no ‘Easy Street’.
‘Annie’ in Nottingham till Saturday 25th May including two matinees. www.trch.co.uk
Review by Ann Taylor
