The musical score in this Martin Charnin, Thomas Meehan, and Charles Strouse production includes the endearing It’s the Hard-Knock Life, Maybe, Easy Street, and its signature song Tomorrow, propelling the comic strip heroine to Broadway sensation that won it seven Tony Awards including Best Musical in 1977.

Starlight Musical Theatre has been producing at least one family-oriented show each summer, with Annie following on the heels of last year’s extremely successful The Wizard of Oz (starring “Billie” winner Candice Nicole) and Peter Pan (starring “Billie” winner Alexandra Auckland) the year before that. Headlining this production is another little star in the making – ten-year-old Chelsea Cree Groen. What an unbelievable voice! Chelsea’s lovely singing of Tomorrow and Maybe is more than worth the price of admission – so beautiful that on Friday night no planes dared to fly over and disturb either song. That voice, the cutest smile, along with her humorous efforts to get Warbucks secretary Grace Farrell (Sandy Campbell) to choose her as the lucky orphan to live with Daddy Warbucks for a week, are all promising of great things ahead for this young star.

And this cast was packed with other great performances and cameos. John Kenton Shull was the stiff and awkward “Daddy” to Annie who finally lets his hair down (so to speak) in he and Annie’s duet I Don’t Need Anything But You where they dance with Annie standing on his feet. Priscilla Allen is the mean Miss Hannigan, head of the girl’s orphanage, who hilariously flirts with any poor man who happens to cross her path, and who cruelly makes it her life’s ambition to make the “Little Girls, Little Girls” despise her as much as possible – and work as much as possible. All leading to a fun and enthusiastic rendition of It’s a Hard-Knock Life by the talented little orphans (with extra enthusiasm provided by strong-lunged Kara Keyes). The orphans combine again for another one of the best scenes – You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile led by “Billie” winner Tiffany Scarritt as orphan Tessie who has a knack for stomping on Miss Hannigan’s feet.

Other memorable scenes include FDR (William Lawrence Kerr) and his stuffy cabinet loosening up to sing Tomorrow, an even stuffier butler (John Martin) who is not at all subtle in turning up his nose at the ragamuffin Annie and the new vernacular like “spiffed up” that begins to be used in the household, the destitute Hooverites expressing their barely disguised displeasure with Former President Hoover’s policies, a dozen fantastic dancing and singing Warbucks servants who promise Annie that she is Gonna Like It Here, and an amusing “radio show” scene led by the charismatic Kim Neblett and including a ventriloquist show by Joey Minnich (although video is bound to kill this radio star, as his “ventriloquism” is a bit rough – but perfect so long as nobody can see his lips!), the three singing Boylan sisters (one of which is quite tall and looks a lot like a certain stuffy butler), a Sound Effects man (Phil Golden) who chooses some rather strange sounds and sound-makers, and a marvelously melodramatic “masked announcer” (“Billie” winner Trevor Hollingsworth -- the ONLY “masked announcer” on radio!). And then of course there's Annie's dog Sandy (Freedom), who manages uses his/her doggish charm to make a big impact with relatively little stage time.

And finally, for the biggest laughs of the evening, there is the hysterically evil, not-too-bright couple of Miss Hannigan’s brother Rooster (Wayne Tibbetts) and his gal Lily St. Regis (Jodie Knutson-Weiss). Wayne Tibbetts, last seen as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, but even better remembered as the Dentist in Starlight’s Little Shop of Horrors, returns to the Starlight stage for an unforgettable performance as the con man who tries to swindle Warbucks out of $50,000, and do away with Annie in the process, by pretending that he and Lily are her long-lost parents. Wayne owns the crowd with a wacky performance that went from the rooster’s comb at the top of his head to the end of his rubbery legs. Jodi Knudson-Weiss complements him with her sultry, dumb blonde act – or at least as “sultry” as you can get with her perfectly outrageous voice. Rooster, Lily, and Miss Hannigan combine for a riotously funny Easy Street.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill