I have adult friends who were obsessed with the movie Annie as a child. I never even saw the movie until I was an adult. I bought my kids the anniversary edition about a year ago and have seen the new version but I am by no means an Annie expert. Still, when I found out that Annie the musical was coming to the Paramount Theater, I was super excited to take my kids to it.
Unfortunately, my oldest daughter wasn’t able to go but we took a friend in her place. I love visiting the Paramount Theater because it’s such a gorgeous building. The shows there never disappoint and Annie was no exception. The kids really enjoyed the show and so did I!
These are our excited faces as we waited for the show to start on opening night. This was our view:
On our way to the show and again on our way home, we had the original Annie movie playing in the car. After the play I asked the kids what they thought of the show and whether they liked the original Annie movie, the new Annie movie or the musical best and it was unanimous — they liked the musical best! They also noted that Mr. Warbucks was much nicer in the musical than he is in the original movie.
A lot of the scenes kept very close to the original but the kids tell me there were some new songs and of course they spotted a lot of little differences. One of the most obvious ones is that Annie had straight hair in the musical until she got “gussied up” to celebrate her adoption. The play, of course, included all of Annie’s popular songs like “It’s a Hard Knock Life” and “Tomorrow”, one of which we may have belted out together in the parking garage after the show.
ANNIE will play Seattle’s Paramount Theater through September 26, 2015. The musical is directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time. This production of ANNIE is a brand new show based on the iconic Tony Award®-winning original.
The original production of ANNIE opened April 21, 1977 at the Alvin Theatre and went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the Grammy for Best Cast Show Album and seven Tony Awards®, including Best Musical, Best Book (Thomas Meehan) and Best Score (Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin). The show remains one of the biggest Broadway musical hits ever. It ran for 2,377 performances after it first opened, and has been performed in 28 languages and has been running somewhere around the world for 37 years.
The beloved score for ANNIE includes “Maybe,” “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” “Easy Street,” “I Don’t Need Anything But You” and the eternal anthem of optimism, “Tomorrow.”
This brand new production features a 25 member company: in the title role of Annie is Issie Swickle, a 10-year-old actress from Davie, FL, making her tour debut. Gilgamesh Taggett will star as Oliver Warbucks. In the role of Miss Hannigan is Lynn Andrews. Also starring in the tour are Ashley Edler as Grace, Garrett Deagon as Rooster, Lucy Werner as Lily and Jeffrey B. Duncan as FDR. Sunny, a 5-year-old rescue terrier mix, stars as Sandy.
ANNIE will be at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre for eight performances. The schedule for the Seattle engagement is:
Sunday, September 20 1:00 pm and 6:30pm – An Open Caption performance
Tuesday, September 22 7:30pm
Wednesday, September 23 7:30pm
Thursday, September 24 7:30pm
Friday, September 25 8:00pm
Saturday, September 26 2:00pm – An ASL / AVIA Interpreted performance and 8:00pm
*For tickets to the ASL- Open Caption performances, call the TTY line at 888-331-6774
Tickets for ANNIE start at $25 and will be available on-line at stgpresents.org and tickets.com, by calling 877-STG-4TIX (784-4849), at select Ticketmaster locations and in person at The Paramount Theatre Box Office (Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm).
There’s still time to get discount tickets for Family Night on the Wednesday September 23rd 7:30 pm performance. Buy one adult ticket, get a child ticket for free. Use promo code FAMILY to get this fantastic deal! Just head over to STG Presents, click on GET TICKETS, then click on the Wednesday, Sept 23 show and plug in the code!
*Not valid on previously purchased tickets and cannot be combined with any other offer. Must be 18 years old or younger for child’s ticket.
For tickets and information, visit:
@ANNIEonTour
www.facebook.com/AnnieTheMusical
In exchange for my time and efforts in attending shows and reporting my opinion within this blog, as well as keeping you advised of the latest discount offers, I have been provided with complimentary tickets. Even though I receive these benefits, I always give an opinion that is 100% my own.