Annie Remains Optimistic After All These Years
The Cast of Annie at the Pantages through November 1st
Millions out of work; homeless camps filling up in every town and those lucky enough to have a job barely getting by, always worried. Stratification everywhere, either you're a have, or a have not and the gap between seems unbridgeable. Bleak times of joblessness, homelessness, hunger, fear, a veritable depression.
The sad part is I'm not describing the Great Recession of 2008 or the election of 2016; although on this night, Tuesday, October 13 the Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are discussing these very issues and their place in our future.
No, I'm talking about the era of the latest incarnation of the musical Annie; the Depression era story of an optimistic orphan, her dog and her, well, her Daddy. It's also a story of a starving America, of Hoovervilles (shanty towns, the literal end of the road), of people leaving their children in the care of strangers because at least they'd have food, and the story of a new deal, The New Deal, quite literally; new deals for both our star orphan and the nation.
My knowledge of the current situation, its parallel to the suffering so many are experiencing today added a real sense of gloom to Annie's situation and made it very easy to relate to the themes of the play. Gone was the fun movie memory of my youth or even my exposure to the original Tony winning play with Andrea McArdle as the lead through television of the day; no, at 52 in today's America relating to songs like It's A Hard Knock Life or the omnipresent Tomorrow doesn't take any suspended disbelief at all.
Sickle, Taggett and Ashley Elder in Annie
This time around we have Issie Swickle as Annie, Gilgamesh Taggett as Oliver Warbucks; Lynn Andrews as Miss Hannigan; Ashley Elder as Grace; Garrett Deagon as Rooster; Lucy Werner as Lily; Jeffrey B. Duncan as FDR. It's Swickle and Taggett that command most of the night and the scenes but Andrews' Miss Hannigan is much welcomed comic delight and almost makes you want to root for the bad girl. Issue Swickle leads a large cast of youth effortlessly and Annie isn't really about one orphan's good luck, it's about all of us finding our own. The play almost demands you acknowledge that dammit, tomorrow things just may work out after all and refuses to leave you in a bad mood about it. Yes, the world may be going to hell, but it doesn't have to, it can be saved, one orphan at a time, one person at a time. Love can still be found at Christmas, strays can find forever homes and Presidents can still be relevant and make great change happen.
The cast readies for a New Deal
And just as in those very days of the Depression, Annie allows the audience to find joy in sorrow, to find laughter in the most bleak of circumstances and to find hope where there may not be any. Because no matter the time, hearts still yearn to be warmed, voices still want to be raised, hands still want to clap, people still want to love.
As I sit with most of the New Deal collapsing around me from neglect, the roads, bridges, the programs like Social Security all in danger and America at risk of becoming a very Depressing place yet again, inside the theatre walls, it's all forgotten, if only for a few hours. Inside the Pantages up until November 1 miracles still happen, little girls can still find families and America can be optimistic again, confident that the sun will indeed come out tomorrow.
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