The original Broadway production earned 10 Tony Award nominations and won seven, including Best Musical.
Now, you can bet your bottom dollar that “the sun’ll come out tomorrow” as the North American tour of the smash musical “Annie” visits the National Theatre in D.C. for a six-night run from Tuesday, Jan. 23 through Sunday, Jan. 28.
“This show has this multigenerational appeal where your grandma’s taking you to your very first Broadway show and it was also her first Broadway show and your mom knows it, so it’s a family affair and it’s got a special place in everybody’s heart,” actress Stefanie Londino, who plays Miss Hannigan, told WTOP. “Do yourself a favor, buy yourself some tickets, bring the family, come on down and see ‘Annie.’ We promise you a warm sunshine of a good time.”
Based on the 1924 comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” by Harold Gray and the 1977 Broadway musical “Annie” by Thomas Meehan (book), Charles Strouse (music) and Martin Charnin (lyrics), the story is set in 1933 in New York City where 11-year-old Annie yearns to escape her oppressive orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan.
“Lo and behold, a miracle drops out of the sky and a billionaire, Oliver Warbucks, is looking for an orphan to come spend the Christmas holiday at his fabulous mansion,” Londino said. “Annie gets picked and whisked away to the mansion where Daddy Warbucks promptly falls in love with her and realizes that the joy of Annie and a child in his life is what’s been missing. They find each other and it’s a beautiful story.”
Like many folks, Londino first discovered “Annie” by watching the 1982 movie directed by John Huston.
“I’m one of the rare ones that did not see it on stage or do it in school — the very first exposure I had to it was watching the movie with Carol Burnett,” Londino said. “I remember being very young and being drawn to Carol’s performance and feeling like she was this incandescent, bizarre, wacky, tortured, funny thing — and here we are, years and years and years later, and I’m standing in her shoes, so it’s an extraordinary experience.”
The iconic songbook includes showtime standards like “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” and “Tomorrow.”
“[‘Hard-Knock Life’] is a banger, it’s the rage of the trapped, the anthem of the people who know they deserve better and want a better life,” Londino said. “‘Hard Knock’ is legendary and our girls sing the crap out of it. … If ‘Hard-Knock Life’ is the rage against the machine, ‘Tomorrow’ is the light of hope shining forward, the sun coming out tomorrow. … Wait ’til you hear Rainey Trevino, our Annie, sing it. It’ll just break your heart. It’s a beautiful one.”
Of course, her own showstopper is Miss Hannigan’s big number “Little Girls.”
“It’s Hannigan’s ‘Hard Knock Life,’ her fury anthem,” Londino said. “She gets played like a villain a lot of the time and a caricature, but I don’t think she is evil for evil’s sake. I think she is deeply unhappy, deeply trapped, deeply stuck and deeply miserable — and from that comes this rage and this visitation of misery upon everyone else. It’s a moment to really just sit in it and feel it. It’s a legendary moment for sure. I’m honored to be able to sing that tune.”
It’s all brought to life by a “veritable slugger lineup of Broadway designers.”
“You’ve got Wilson Chin’s incredible set design, which is a stripped back, incredible play space that nods to New York,” Londino said. “You’ve got Philip Rosenbaum’s incredible lighting design, which might be the star of the show. You’ve got Alejo Vietti’s stellar costume design, which really entrenches you in that time period in the 1930s. … It’s a visually stunning piece. You’re going to be blown away. Come for the delight to your eyes, ears and heart.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
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