It’s just the right time for ‘Annie’ to return

By Rich Fahey

STONEHAM – A theater is never as alive as when it is filled with young people – many of whom are experiencing live theater for the first time.

And so the lobby of the Greater Boston Stage Company was buzzing Sunday afternoon in anticipation of the troupe’s  musical “Annie,” now onstage through June 28. It is the first production of the musical at GBSC, and it makes a welcome and timely visit.

“Annie” is based on the comic strip “Li’l Orphan Annie,” created by Harold Gray, which debuted on Aug. 5, 1924, and ran for 85 years and 10 months, until June 13, 2010. The real-life history of its setting in the time of The Great Depression runs throughout the musical, even depicting the shantytowns or “Hoovervilles” that inspired the musical number “We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover.”

It is Christmastime 1933, and an 11-year-old orphan named Annie still awaits the return of her parents, who dropped her off at the New York City Municipal Orphanage soon after her birth with a locket and a note promising to return. She has been holding onto that note and the locket (“Maybe”) ever since, dreaming of the day she’d finally be reunited with her parents.

10-year-old Livia Quist, a member of the show’s Blue Cast who performed Sunday, has all the qualities you’d want in an Annie — brimming with confidence and charisma, and a voice that might reach the last row of the theater without a microphone. She’s in sync with whomever she’s acting with, including the other orphans: Duffy (Maya Feldman), July (Aisling Murray), Kate (Cassidy Linskey), Pepper (Brenna Brien), Tessie (Penelope Mae Kaminsky, and Molly, the youngest (Audrey Awad).  Together, they make the production numbers their own, from the first notes of “It’s The Hard Knock Life” to the joyous “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.”

Quist as Annie also goes toe to toe with Miss Hannigan (Ceit Zwiel), the odious caretaker of the orphanage, and bonds with the billionaire Daddy Warbucks, (the silken-voiced De’Lon Grant), who exudes warmth.

The actor and comedian W.C. Fields reportedly said that actors should never work with animals and children because they will always steal the spotlight.

Well, Fields probably had a point, but the talented young actors probably never had to try and steal a scene from a trio of actors such as Zweil, who also choreographed the show, Mark Linehan (Rooster Hannigan) and Kathy St. George (Lily St. Regis), all with decades of experience in making people laugh. Con man Rooster and Lily conspire, with Miss Hannigan’s help, to pose as Annie’s parents and swindle the unsuspecting Warbucks out of $50,000. Their rendition of “Easy Street” is comic gold.

Linehan’s comic skills make him the perfect partner for St. George, a recent winner of the Norton Award for Sustained Excellence and simply a local treasure, a Stoneham native who loves to come back home.

There are a large number of strong supporting performances: Tader Shipley is Warbucks’s kind secretary, Grace Farrell, and the mansion’s staff includes Drake (Stephen Markarian), Mrs. Greer (Pearl Scott), and Mrs. Pugh (Sarah Morin).

Michael Saenz channels FDR in the early days of his administration; Christian David is the amiable radio announcer Bert Healy, and a diverse ensemble elevates Zweil’s  choreography in the production numbers.

The Tony-winning score (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin) and book by Thomas Meehan have long since become theatrical icons. “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “I Don’t Need Anything But You,” “NYC.” and the eternal anthem of optimism, “Tomorrow,” never get old.

Bethany Aiken leads an orchestra that gives full voice to the score.
Director Tyler Rosati has extensive past experience with young actors, and oversees a cast of 30 and one animal – lovable Gideon, who plays Sandy. The logistics of rehearsing two complete casts of orphans and integrating them both into scenes with the rest of the cast is mind-boggling in itself. Kudos to all involved.

Since we are in the midst of a miserable spring, jarring world events and economic uncertainty, it is a great time to bring “Annie” – and its message of hope, caring, and resilience — back into our lives.

And, speaking of resilience, it has been a long road back for the theater world since the pandemic shuttered theaters for many months.

But seeing so many young, talented, enthusiastic performers onstage and young theater-goers cheering them on is a most welcome and heartening sign.

The Greater Boston Stage Company production of “Annie.” Book by Thomas Meehan. Music by Charles Strouse. Lyrics by Martin Charnin. Directed by Tyler Rosati. At the Greater Boston Stage Company through June 28. Greaterbostonstage.org

Annie (Livia Quist, center) is welcomed by the staff of Oliver Warbucks’s mansion in a scene from “Annie.” Photo: Nile Scott Studios