London needs a new feel-good show. But if the notion of children melting adult hearts is enough to harden your arteries, Annie — musical theatre’s cutest child character, alongside Oliver — probably isn’t it.
That said, both child characters inspired two Jewish musical theatre heavyweights, Lionel Bart in the case of Oliver, and Charles Strouse, to write some of the most enduring songs ever composed for the stage. Perhaps when sentimentality turns to schmaltz, it’s easier to swallow.
The surprise here is that there is less fluff and more social realism to this Broadway classic of 1976 than its reputation suggests. Set in Depression-era New York, Little Orphan Annie (the name of the of comic strip on which the show is based) lives with a clutch of other girl foundlings in an orphanage run by the child-hating, gin-swilling, Miss Hannigan, played in Nikolai Foster’s solid production (first seen in 2011), by Miranda Hart, famous for her eponymous TV show and her role in Call the Midwife.
Annie escapes into the big wide world and encounters those made destitute by the Wall Street Crash. Her optimism gives them hope and it has the same effect on none other than President Roosevelt whose job-creating New Deal scheme is inspired by Annie’s rendition of Tomorrow, the show’s most famous song. So there is more to Annie than an opportunity for grown-ups to swoon at a Shirley Temple-style cute-fest.
