ANNIE (Music by Charles Strouse: Book by Thomas Meehan: Lyrics by Martin Charnin: Based on 'Little Orphan Annie' by permission of Chicago Tribune - New York News Syndicate, Inc.) Alvin Theatre Broadway - 21 April, 1977 - (2377 perfs) Victoria Palace Theatre, London - 2 May (1485 perfs) One of the most successful musicals in recent years, this is the heart-warming tale of Annie's adventures, her escape from the orphanage and the wicked Miss Hannigan to a new life with Daddy Warbucks. SYNOPSIS 1933 and the depths of the Depression. Annie (11 years old) is living in the Municipal Orphanage on New York's Lower East Side. Miss Hannigan is the principal in charge of the orphanage and needs no lessons on being compared to the wicked witch of the West. Annie decides to escape and try and find her parents. Naturally this proves unsuccessful. However, Grace Farrell, secretary to the millionaire Oliver Warbucks is searching for an orphan that she might invite back to the Warbucks' household to celebrate Christmas. Despite Warbucks' initial disappointment that Grace has not found a boy, Oliver takes to her and institutes a nationwide search to try and find the little girl's real parents. Miss Hannigan interferes and primes her brother Rooster and his girlfriend, Lily suggesting that they claim Annie as their daughter and thus the reward that goes with the information. Meanwhile Annie is in Washington cheering up the president, Franklin D Roosevelt. However, Rooster and Lily turn up at the Warbucks' and claim Annie - and the reward. Grace, however, has seen Rooster at Miss Hannigan's office and smells a rat. Subsequently the couple's fraudulent claim is exposed - at the same time it is discovered that Annie's parents had, in fact, died some time ago. Warbucks plans to adopt Annie and her fellow orphans are invited back to the Warbucks' home to share in the festival of Christmas - just as America looks forward to future prosperity in the wake of the depression. STORY Annie is the lone cheery spirit at the Municipal Orphanage. Eleven years ago her parents left her there until they could afford to reclaim her. Around her neck she wears half a silver locket, longing for the day her parents will present the matching half and take her home. Now she decides it's time to look for them, and she escapes. She befriends a mongrel dog and names him Sandy. However, the police pick her up and return her to the care of Miss Hannigan, the tyrannical spinster in charge of the orphanage. Before she can beat Annie, Grace Farrell, secretary to billionaire industrialist Oliver Warbucks, arrives to choose a child to spend Christmas at his home. Miss Hannigan is enraged as Annie is chosen and driven off to Warbucks' Fifth Avenue mansion. Warbucks arrives and expresses his displeasure that Grace has not chosen a boy. However, Annie wins him over so completely that Warbucks wants to adopt her. Grace returns to the orphanage to inform a very distraught Miss Hannigan of the new developments. As Grace leaves, she bumps into Miss Hannigan's conartist brother Rooster and his floozy girlfriend Lily. The shady trio reflect on how nice it would be to be on Easy Street like Annie. Back at the mansion, Warbucks presents Annie with a new locket and tells her that he has arranged for adoption. Annie breaks into tears, explaining the old locket and that she wants to find her real mother and father. Disappointed, Warbucks vows to find them for her. He buys time on the most popular radio show to offer a $50,000 reward to anyone who can prove they are Annie's parents.
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