"Annie" - Runaway Stage Productions

Last show of RSP's 2006 season. Saturday's performance was wonderful! Tons of experience on stage! "Annie" is very smooth, with a hard, shiny luster. ("It's a dessert topping! It's a floor wax!")

Both Kaylynn Rothleder (Annie) and Lauren Miller (Lily St. Regis) had done these same roles at DMTC in the spring of 2005. Further, in the summer of 2005, Kaylynn survived very far into a rigorous audition process to find the lead child actress for the "Annie" national Broadway tour: Kaylynn was among the last dozen, or so, of some 500-600 girls who tried out. Ray Fisher (Daddy Warbucks) said this is the fourth time he's played the role. So, several of the lead players had far more experience in these roles than is commonly the case in community theater, or for that matter, professional theater. More pertinent "Annie" experience than you are ever likely to see again on a stage!

In addition, very strong players were chosen for some of the other lead characters: Darryl Strohl (Rooster Hannigan), for example. This was the first time I've seen Lillian Baxter sing - she's good! And Andrea St. Clair, with her strong singing and perfect characterization, is a natural for the role of Warbuck's secretary, Grace Farrell.

Set design by Dave Lack of the Warbuck's mansion was excellent. Darryl Strohl's choreography gave ample opportunity to show off the humor of the show, especially by Lauren Miller.

Very few bad points. Act I was brilliant, but the pacing at the top of Act II was a bit slow. The microphones had a few, fairly minor but predictable problems: some feedback, and "clipping", particularly when Andrea St. Clair would blow out the circuitry with her powerful voice.

One-and-a-half years after the DMTC show, I worried that Kaylynn would be too polished for the innocence demanded by the show, and for about a minute at the beginning of Act I, I thought my worries justified, but as soon as she swung into the opening number, "Maybe," her big smile came out, and the Kaylynn of old was back.

Doesn't Ray have a really great voice?

I felt a strange dissonance as Scott Horsfall went through FDR's lines. I played FDR in the 2005 DMTC show, and the dissonance came as my memory struggled to recover the lines from cobweb-covered neurons. Good performance: my only concern was that Scott should remain in character, in the wheelchair, during curtain call (it disturbs the audience to see FDR walking around so soon).

Great bell-kick, Dave!

"Annie" is the best show I've seen at Runaway Stage - really, I can't recommend it highly enough. After the show, I mentioned my highest-ever rating to Michael McElroy, and he said: "What about 'The Full Monty'? Wasn't that the best one ever?" As I backed down 24th Street, first slowly, then stumbling, and then sharply accelerating away, I shouted ever-louder: "The Full Monty? Oh, fine show! Fine....fine.....", as Mike Mac maniacally laughed .....

(unfortunately no pictures - camera not charged)