Turner and Adler productions is back at Centre 64 this month, this time with their production of the popular musical, Annie.
Elizabeth Adler, who plays Miss Hannigan, says the classic, family friendly musical is based on the popular comic strip.
“Annie tells the extraordinary story of a little orphan who ends up in the lap of luxury with Depression-era billionaire, Oliver Warbucks,” says the local production company. “Unlike most of the other children at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage, Annie believes that her parents are still alive and will one day return to claim her. So when Warbucks offers to adopt her, she asks the most powerful man in America to help find her real mom and dad instead, and he agrees. Warbucks’ whopping reward for Annie’s parents attracts the attention of con artists Rooster, Lilly and the Wicked Miss Hannigan, who hatch a plot to kidnap Annie and take the $50,000 reward. But don’t fret: this classic family musical has a happy ending for Annie, Daddy Warbucks and the whole gang.”
Directed by Tylene Turner with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas Meehan, this musical is fun for the whole family. Annie is played by Chloe Dickenson, Patrick Baranowski as Oliver Warbucks, Grace Farrell is played by Courtney Crawford, Rooster Hannigan played by Connor Klassen and Lily St. Regis played by Jelena Jensen.
“Rehearsals for a musical this size can seem like a daunting challenge,” said Adler. “Our director, Tylene Turner, works through shows like this as if they were a puzzle - defining and focusing on each scene separately, so at the end, when we put all the pieces together, the puzzle becomes clear. With a cast as large as Annie, everyone has to be on the ball and committed to giving 100 per cent all of the time to support their fellow cast mates. It’s exciting to be working on a childhood favourite of ours.”
“People are most likely familiar with the 1982 Hollywood movie version of Annie, and audiences will see and hear a lot of what they remember from that,” Adler said. “But the stage musical is actually quite a bit different - a couple added songs and a completely different ending.”
“Turner and Adler had such an awesome turnout of kids at our auditions this year, especially so many girls, which is why we chose to take on Annie,” said Adler. “This really is a full community project with actors and crew coming from both Kimberley and Cranbrook, and even a few mother/daughter teams on stage together. We even have a new team in our tech booth who have recently moved here from Edmonton. We are so fortunate to have so many friends and family coming together to bring Annie to life.”
Annie runs at Centre 64 from Tuesday August, 22 to Saturday August, 26 with shows starting at 7:30p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available at Snowdrift Cafe in Kimberley and Lotus Books in Cranbrook.