It was great to be able to see Annie on Monday night at the Pavillion Theatre in Worthing. I have seen the show many times as an amateur production, so I was looking forward to finally seeing it performed by a professional touring company.
The opening scene is one of my favourites featuring the beautiful song, ‘Maybe’ performed as a solo by Annie. Then the well-known, ‘It’s the Hard Knock Life’ performed by all of the orphans. The lights in the theatre go out and the stage grows brighter, revealing scenery of a dirty, old dormitory; an orphanage in New York. I thought Annie, played by Victoria Sian Lewis, sung very well, creating the lost and hopeless feelings all orphans must experience when they miss or have no parents. Then the audience is introduced to the ‘wonderful’ Miss. Hannigan. I thought Su Pollard played her role as the mean, brutal and hideous carer for the orphans brilliantly. She even got the occasional ‘boo’ from some people in the audience (it was just as if I was back watching the panto!)
I felt really sorry for Suzy, the little dog who played ‘Mutt’ in the show, as she only came on for a split second and didn’t even come on for a bow at the end! She looked so cute and I would have loved to have seen more of her. I enjoyed watching Danny the dog play ‘Sandy’, the dog Annie finds as a stray. However, he came on the stage very slowly and wasn’t really cheerful or naughty enough to match Annie’s temperament, though he won lots of ahhhh’s from those around me and I too love to watch animals on the stage.
David McAlister, who played Oliver Warbucks and Simone Craddock, who played Grace Farrell, both had the most amazing and powerful singing voices. They were perfectly believable in their roles and I thoroughly enjoyed watching as they led us into new parts of the story. The rest of the cast were all very professional and looked to be completely enjoying themselves on the stage. The rapport between them was clear to see and if there was the rare slip up, they helped each other along and to make mistakes almost completely unnoticeable.
The audience quite clearly had a great time with many of them singing along- even if some of them were just slightly out of tune! The show ended with a rapturous and well deserved applause and it was great to see so many people heading out to their cars and lifts home.
The show is running until the 5 March and it would be a real shame for theatre and musical lovers to miss it.
I felt really sorry for Suzy, the little dog who played ‘Mutt’ in the show, as she only came on for a split second and didn’t even come on for a bow at the end! She looked so cute and I would have loved to have seen more of her. I enjoyed watching Danny the dog play ‘Sandy’, the dog Annie finds as a stray. However, he came on the stage very slowly and wasn’t really cheerful or naughty enough to match Annie’s temperament, though he won lots of ahhhh’s from those around me and I too love to watch animals on the stage.
David McAlister, who played Oliver Warbucks and Simone Craddock, who played Grace Farrell, both had the most amazing and powerful singing voices. They were perfectly believable in their roles and I thoroughly enjoyed watching as they led us into new parts of the story. The rest of the cast were all very professional and looked to be completely enjoying themselves on the stage. The rapport between them was clear to see and if there was the rare slip up, they helped each other along and to make mistakes almost completely unnoticeable.
The audience quite clearly had a great time with many of them singing along- even if some of them were just slightly out of tune! The show ended with a rapturous and well deserved applause and it was great to see so many people heading out to their cars and lifts home.
The show is running until the 5 March 2011 and it would be a real shame for theatre and musical lovers to miss it.
