The difficulty with star casting, for a potential theatergoer, is that you never know if it’s merely a gimmick — a famous face who’s been hired to goose a play’s box office, but might not deliver much onstage. And when the celebrity is swooping into an existing production, taking over a role for just a stretch, there is also the question of chemistry. Will the well-known actor blend with the show?
Glad tidings, then, from the holiday run of “Annie” at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, where Whoopi Goldberg is giving a rib-ticklingly funny, extremely smart performance as the tipsy, terrorizing Miss Hannigan, bane of all the orphans in her care. If Goldberg the TV talk-show presence has eclipsed in your mind Goldberg the savvy comic actor, her Miss Hannigan will jog your memory.
There is, for example, the weary, what-can-I-tell-you wave of her hand as she utters the oblivious line “Why any kid would want to be an orphan, I’ll never know.” And there is the gross-out one-upmanship of her snatching a dead mouse from a moppet who’s trying to scare her with it, popping the rodent’s head into her mouth and pretending to chomp down.
Not to be underestimated, there is also the affection the audience has for Goldberg. On Friday night, as Miss Hannigan settled into her comfy green armchair, legs splayed and liquor bottle at the ready, I heard a woman across the aisle say in an exhale of fondness: “Oh, Whoopi.” Well, exactly. Even as one of the great child-loathing villains of musical comedy, Goldberg has our sympathy.
She has quite a good show around her, too. Directed by Jenn Thompson, who played the orphan Pepper in the original 1977 Broadway production, this touring version of Thomas Meehan, Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse’s classic steers well clear of cloying. It’s a thoughtful interpretation, making emotional sense of a comic-strip tale, with a remarkably fine Annie in Hazel Vogel.
The story is set in Depression-era New York, in December 1933, when the divide between the haves and have-nots is stark. Annie, a tough and tender 11-year-old longing for the parents who surrendered her when she was an infant, is plucked from her orphanage to spend Christmastime at the opulent home of Oliver Warbucks (Christopher Swan), a Fifth Avenue billionaire. (Set design is by the reliably clever Wilson Chin.)
Growing besotted with this child who has tamed his growliness, Warbucks wants to adopt Annie, but she is still waiting for her mother and father to return. He promptly offers a large reward to find them. Along the way, Annie sings “Tomorrow” to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Mark Woodard). Warbucks is nothing if not well connected.
In this wisely understated production, the relationships feel unusually natural. Of course Annie falls instantly for Sandy, a dog she meets on the street, played by the disarmingly darling canine actor Kevin. (The dog trainer is Charlotte Woertler.) Of course Warbucks and his right-hand woman, Grace Farrell (Julia Nicole Hunter), decide their kindhearted Annie is a keeper. (Her wardrobe, by Alejo Vietti, definitely is.)
And of course Miss Hannigan hates the brat, whose runaway tendencies have caused so much trouble. But when Miss Hannigan’s brother, Rooster (Rhett Guter), and his girlfriend, Lily (Isabella De Souza Moore), plot to impersonate Annie’s parents and collect the reward, Miss Hannigan is startled by the suggestion that Rooster intends to kill the girl.
That doesn’t stop her from aiding their nefariousness; she’s greedy for her cut of the cash. Still, as she joins in on the song and dance of “Easy Street,” Rooster and Lily are exultant, while she is morally queasy. This, too, Goldberg communicates with subtlety.
Vogel displays a similar restraint in Annie’s more traumatized moments — nothing maudlin, simply a child’s subdued shock, which adds depth to the proceedings. So does the warm affection between her and Warbucks. When they briefly waltz together at his mansion, the interlude has a gentle poignancy. (Choreography is by Patricia Wilcox.)
In a strong cast, Olive Ross-Kline is an adorable scene-stealer as Molly, the littlest orphan, while Savannah Fisher and Lawrence E. Street have standout moments in the ensemble.
One caveat: The volume of the child actors’ microphones is in dire need of dialing down. Under-mike the orphans and they risk being drowned out by the orchestra when they sing, but over-mike them and we reel — not from their voices, but from the blare of them. (Sound design is by Ken Travis, music direction by Andrew David Sotomayor.)
That miscalculation makes the opening scene, in the orphanage dorm, worrisomely off-putting: a bunch of kids arguing much too loudly. Repeatedly throughout the show, the sound level works against Vogel’s lovely, clear singing voice, which needs less boosting.
But the rest of this “Annie” is very carefully judged — with a sweetness level that never overpowers.
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