Review: ANNIE at Kauffman Center

If a musical comedy could be served up as comfort food, that show would look a lot like "Annie." Audiences have been lapping up the sweet story of Little Orphan Annie since it opened on Broadway in 1977.

Troika Entertainment's tour production of "Annie" captures all the enthusiasm and pure entertainment value of the original production. Troika has dedicated the resources necessary to make this production worth seeing on the Kauffman Center main stage and it shows. "Annie" is a crowd pleaser.

Ellie Pulsifer of Parkland Fl stars in the title role of Annie in her first touring performance. Ellie, who was 12 years-old when the tour began last fall, does a fine job as the iconic mop top. Ellie booms out the show's signature "Tomorrow" with all the gusto of original "Annie" Andrea McCardle.

Pulsiver is backed up by Veteran Christopher Swan as billionaire with a heart Oliver Warbucks. Evil orphanage mistress Miss Hannigan is Stefanie Londino. My date for the evening (my daughter) declared Miss Hannigan "a hoot." Julia Nicole Hunter is excellent as Grace, Mr. Warbuck's personal assistant. Nick Bernardi plays conman Rooster paired up with Krista Curry as Lily St. Regis.

I am also told I need to send a positive "bark" out to Sandy, the lovable rescue mutt trained by William Berloni. She was not at all "Ruff" in her role. She takes a treat with the best of them.

"Annie" is in the capable directorial hands of Jen Thompson, who played Pepper in the original Broadway production of "Annie" way back in 1977. Certainly, no one has a longer connection to this material. Choreographer Patricia Wilcox has a style all her own.

It is very obvious this remarkably competent company and ensemble has been dance drilled to a fare-thee -well. That is a good thing and even after eight months on a road tour, they maintain an enviable level of energy throughout.

Annie escapes the clutches of the comic evil Miss Hannigan at the orphanage. The little girl is given the opportunity to spend Christmas in a mansion and absolutely charms her host. Annie is offered adoption by the starchy but kindly industrialist Oliver Warbucks, but Annie is convinced her biological parents will return for her.

Warbucks offers a reward if Annie's parents can be found. But Miss Hannigan's con-man brother Rooster and his girlfriend conspire to kidnap Annie and steal the reward. Of course, Annie survives and is adopted by the billionaire.

With a score by Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse and a book by Thomas Meehan, Annie has become a musical theater classic. Set in 1933 in the depths of the Great Depression at New York City, "Annie's" music has passed into the Great American songbook. Outstanding is the theme for the show "Tomorrow," "It's A Hard Knock Life," "I Think I'm Going To Like It Here," "Easy Street," and "I Don't Need Anything, But You."

Annie first appeared in an 1885 poem by a man named James Whitcomb Riley. It was revived as a Sunday Comic Strip in 1924 by cartoonist Harold Gray and ran under Gray until the cartoonist's death in 1968. Other artists picked up where Gray left off and the original strip continued until 2010. The characters still appear in the long running Dick Tracy comic. Dick Tracy also invented the watch computer many of us wear today.

Although today seen as a quaint children's story, Annie was quite controversial in her time. It tackled big issues like the "New Deal," Unions, Industry, and business corruption. The original strip was so popular in its time; it inspired a radio show, two movies in the 1930s, and finally a Broadway show in 1977. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the comic over the radio in response to a 1945 newspaper delivery strike.

"Annie" continues its Kansas City run through this Sunday, April 23 at the Kauffman Center. Tickets are available at BroadwayinKC.com or by phone at 800-776-7469.