By M.K. Scott
Last night I saw the National Tour cast of "Annie" at Seattle's Paramount Theatre. It was amazing! Directed by the original director and new Seattle resident, Martin Charnin. Charnin has stepped in as director for about the umpteenth time (among others, he directed the original 1977 production on Broadway and the 1997 revival), and he has brought to the show plenty of gloss and humor. The show starred David Barton as Oliver Warbucks and Madison Kerth in the title role. The opening scene with the orphans was great. I've heard once that you either win or lose your audience with 'Hard-Knock Life'. They definitely won their audience with it.
I instantly fell in love with Mackenzie Aladjem as Molly. She was adorable. She played the role with just enough cuteness for it to seem real. She was an awesome dancer and I was the shocked that the actress was 11 playing about 6 or 7.
I could tell from the minute that Lynn Andrews came on stage as Miss Hannigan that she was amazing. She doesn't hold a candle to Janel Jarosz from my 1984 High School production (I went to the best Theater dept anywhere.) But she played the role with an awesome sense of humor. Andrews, a big woman with a big grasp of physical comedy. She had just the right amount of sarcasm.
We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover" was great (but when My High school did it, it was a Tap number). The Hooverville-ites each really played up their roles. They each had such character to them. It was great. The staff at Warbucks' mansion was good as well. Traci Bair was very good as Grace Farrell. I really liked Ricky Pope as Drake as well. You could tell he was having a lot of fun with the role. President F.D.R. and his staff were all enjoyable. I especially loved Bundles played by Kevin Gutches and he was the cutest of all the Cast members. Zander Meisner was great as Rooster. He got his rooster crow down well. He did well as both Rooster and Ralph Mudge. I had a hard time watching Cheryl Hoffmann as Lily though. She just seemed way too fake in my opinion. Her wig was too obvious, and her voice sounded fake. She seemed to be trying too hard to be a ditzy blonde.
Mikey was great as Sandy. I do think they could have made him look a little more dirty though. The set was beautiful. The backdrop for "Lower Broadway" kind of reminded me of Sesame Street, but it was still good. I think they didn't use the same backdrop more than once. Overall, it was a great show.
Last night I saw the National Tour cast of "Annie" at Seattle's Paramount Theatre. It was amazing! Directed by the original director and new Seattle resident, Martin Charnin. Charnin has stepped in as director for about the umpteenth time (among others, he directed the original 1977 production on Broadway and the 1997 revival), and he has brought to the show plenty of gloss and humor. The show starred David Barton as Oliver Warbucks and Madison Kerth in the title role. The opening scene with the orphans was great. I've heard once that you either win or lose your audience with 'Hard-Knock Life'. They definitely won their audience with it.
I instantly fell in love with Mackenzie Aladjem as Molly. She was adorable. She played the role with just enough cuteness for it to seem real. She was an awesome dancer and I was the shocked that the actress was 11 playing about 6 or 7.
I could tell from the minute that Lynn Andrews came on stage as Miss Hannigan that she was amazing. She doesn't hold a candle to Janel Jarosz from my 1984 High School production (I went to the best Theater dept anywhere.) But she played the role with an awesome sense of humor. Andrews, a big woman with a big grasp of physical comedy. She had just the right amount of sarcasm.
We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover" was great (but when My High school did it, it was a Tap number). The Hooverville-ites each really played up their roles. They each had such character to them. It was great. The staff at Warbucks' mansion was good as well. Traci Bair was very good as Grace Farrell. I really liked Ricky Pope as Drake as well. You could tell he was having a lot of fun with the role. President F.D.R. and his staff were all enjoyable. I especially loved Bundles played by Kevin Gutches and he was the cutest of all the Cast members. Zander Meisner was great as Rooster. He got his rooster crow down well. He did well as both Rooster and Ralph Mudge. I had a hard time watching Cheryl Hoffmann as Lily though. She just seemed way too fake in my opinion. Her wig was too obvious, and her voice sounded fake. She seemed to be trying too hard to be a ditzy blonde.
Mikey was great as Sandy. I do think they could have made him look a little more dirty though. The set was beautiful. The backdrop for "Lower Broadway" kind of reminded me of Sesame Street, but it was still good. I think they didn't use the same backdrop more than once. Overall, it was a great show.
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