Review: Annie at the Liverpool Empire ****
Time and tide wait for no man…or girl. And even little orphan Annie is now marking her big 5-0, despite being preserved for all time as a precocious 11-year-old.
When the musical was first staged back in the 1970s, the Great Depression was still well within living memory, and the world was going through another troubled time.
One might say plus ça change. But while the 1930s setting may not have any resonance for today's children, there’s still plenty to capture the imagination of young theatregoers (and there were many of them in the Empire last night), not least the story’s rebellious gang of kids getting one over on the adults.
Well, one adult in particular. But more of her anon.
It’s a 'hard-knock life’ for the young inmates in the New York orphanage where a baby Annie was abandoned by her parents, with a note and half a locket to remember them by. But the girls' spirit refuses to be dimmed in a tale that’s essentially about hope in adversity, and good triumphing over evil.
In fact, the catchy It’s The Hard Knock Life sets the tone for an evening of high energy and punchy performances.
Of all the performances, none proved punchier on press night than Victoria Alsina, one of four young actors playing Annie on tour, who roared on to the stage as the perky and perennially positive red-headed orphan and never took her foot off the gas.
Alsina, despite her tender years already a veteran of the West End, is an exceptionally confident leading lady, reminiscent at times of a young Bonnie Langford, and moved seamlessly between child and adult worlds without the least tremor in her composure.
She also belted out Annie’s anthem – the earworm that is Tomorrow – with power and conviction.
Above: Annie (Victoria Alsina) and Sandy the dog meet the penniless inhabitants of 'Hooverville'. Top: Claire Sweeney as Miss Hannigan. Photo by Paul Coltas.
It must be said though that there’s rather a lack of light and shade factored into the role as it’s written; little orphan Annie is so relentlessly peppy it’s like she’s permanently on full-beam, and – 'oh boy!' - at times it can all be a bit too dazzling. Less is sometimes more.
Alsina certainly proves a match for the story’s other leading lady, the child-loathing, alcohol-loving antagonist Agatha Hannigan, played with enjoyable brio by Liverpool’s own Claire Sweeney.
In recent times this fabulous female role has occasionally been filled by men in drag - Craig Revel Horwood stepped in (with it has to be said a deliciously sly and sharp performance) three years ago after the untimely death of Paul O’Grady who was due to play the monstrous matron on tour, and apparently La Voix has also taken a turn.
But I’d suggest no one can play a woman quite like, well, a woman. And Sweeney brings a sense of pathos to a character who is in some ways as trapped as her young charges (plus as I’ve said before, wrangling a gang of piercing-voiced mini rapscallions would be enough to drive a saint to drink) along with some crack comic timing and a crackling energy.
Above: Grace Farrel (Tanisha-Mae Brown) and ensemble.
Of the other adults, the chocolatey smooth-voiced Alex Bourne brings sympathy and heart to the role of gazillionaire businessman Oliver ‘Daddy’ Warbucks – a part he also played here in 2023, and a twinkle-toed Tanisha-Mae Brown as Grace Farrell proves a warm and unflappable female factotum.
Elsewhere Christian Cooper and Amber Kennedy have fun as Miss Hannigan’s ne-er-do-well brother Rooster and his lithe moll Lily, but I think there’s scope for Rooster to be even more rascally. And the start of the trio’s rollicking number Easy Street would benefit from some turbocharging.
Oh, and not forgetting Dizzy the cockapoo who plays canine character Sandy impeccably - albeit shamelessly for tasty treats.
Colin Richmond’s vivid set is part-Grimms fairytale, part-glorious Jazz Age and part grim reality, with jigsaw pieces, scattered like confetti and changing colour with the wider mood, symbolising Annie’s attempt to piece together the puzzle of her parentage while navigating the world which changes around her.