05/23/2026
Annie Review #2: from the 4/30/26 performance
I should say immediately that my only prior experience with the show was the film version in 1982.
As I settled in my seat to watch the musical, I was aware of a number of pre-show “prompts” to help prepare me for encountering the performance. Knowing the Warbucks celebration ending, I was (rather-non-imaginatively-on-my-part) surprised to see a rather dark, gloomy, non-welcoming set. But I did enjoy the mix of 1930s music playing—sometimes jazzy, sometimes, soulful, and sometimes delightfully whimsical which hinted at the joys to come.
Imagine my embarrassment and chagrin when the play opened, and I am invited to remember that (of course!), the show begins in an orphanage with orphans! Duh! Immediately the dingy and the dusky made sense; the girls, dressed in muted drab brown, grays, and colorless blahs, wrenched my heart out, and I remembered that Annie pulls no punches from the very beginning. What a disturbing and heartfelt contrast it felt when this small girl named Annie, played so vulnerably and thoughtfully by Ellory Patterson throughout, moves the audience to a complete
hush as she sings/muses about the “Maybe” of her parents return. And she sings this in the midst of her peers, the nameless and colorless smudges, spaced-around, almost discarded, pile of sleeping girls behind her. You can almost halfway shut your eyes to that pile, and in your blurred vision, you even imagine that pile of clothes of living girls becoming an uncomfortable “rubbish” heap, or even a pile of refused goods dropped off at the back of some poverty thrift store.
And of course, Annie’s small and tender voice reminds you that that whole pile of girls is made up of real live girls, with real live hopes and dreams. Patterson’s Annie invites us in to find the real complexity of all these girls. Annie brings out right away that you will not find two-dimensional orphans here: these are complex girls, and Patterson steals our hearts right from that very first number. She refuses to make Annie invisible, and by implication, to make any of the girls invisible.
And here is the greatest surprise that I experienced in this show. The orphan girl’s chorus shocked me! I don’t know whether it was Cindy Smith’s direction, or Christopher Levi’s direction, or very probably Brooke Mattingly’s direction, but the orphans girls were a revelation of individualized and group coordination. From “It’s a Hard Knock Life to the end of the show—the girl performers—were more individualized, more “real,” more group identified, than any chorus group I have ever seen. Every time the girls sang, danced, dialogued, or performed, I
was looking to see--not only someone who would break character—but also if someone did not have a character to break. And what I found--still makes me smile in memory—thanks to the choreographer, music director, or director team—every single character in that orphan chorus—was unique, individualized, and had real, differentiated relationship with others on stage. Every young actor was creating a distinct character, totally different from the other characters, yet each intently and intentionally created real communal presence on stage! Amazing! Kudos to every single girl chorus performer on stage in all their scenes. I have never
seen such an authentic young chorus moment on stage like that, anywhere.
Ellory Patterson as Annie was a delight—and rightfully so—was, and had to be--the low-key, but bright-light, adorable, whimsical, playful, wistful and wishful Annie that we needed to see. Patterson played Annie as a real orphan child, hesitant when she needed to be hesitant, and loving, imaginative, and compassionate to all she met. She needed to be a light for the other girls; for Hannigan (was Annie’s light her biggest threat?); for Grace; for Warbucks, and even for
the President (played whimsically and playfully by Gary Gardner). Her ability to be vulnerable and a bright light at the same time is difficult to pull off, but Patterson did it wonderfully. She gripped the whole audience from the beginning to end.
Michael Howland as Warbucks was of course an excellent performance: how do you balance this larger-than-life blustery character with all of his musical and personal vulnerability that makes believable this successful, intimidating billionaire coming to love this little orphan child?
Howland walks that tightrope beautifully—big and powerful at times, and yet, touchingly—even almost achingly—tender as well—all in one or two songs? And of course, this is always where Howland amazes us—his ability to convey the complexity of a character’s emotional range—singing or not--has always been the delightful gift and grace that anyone whoever sees him perform, receives and cherishes—Daddy Warbucks lived on the stage that night. And of course, whether singing and/or speaking, Howland’s voice is mesmerizing, always. Thank you Michael.
So many standouts—not enough writing space or time—
Elizabeth Torkelson’s Hannigan is also a stand-out. From the “little girl” song and throughout, she invested just enough indifference and virtual contempt for the girls that we as the audience, at times, just wanted to hiss and dismiss her character as evil and an object of our own contempt. But here is where Torkelson also walked her own character tightrope as well: Torkelson lets us
eventually see the demons that stalk Hannigan’s life as well--alcoholism, a manipulative and conniving brother, and a distillation of life chances that, in a way, makes Hannigan seem like just one more addition to the girls’ refuse pile. In other words, Torkelson and the directors, assured us that we can not dismiss the private hells that Hannigan lives each day. We may not be able to forgive her, but by the end of the production we come to understand her: she is not two-dimensional. Torkelson helps us to find her contemptible, and yet, we pity Hannigan too. Kudos
to Torkelson as well, for a flawless performance!
Alison Root as Grace Farrell—a part that would be easy, again, to make two dimensional, just a liaison between Warbucks and Annie, until Farrell seems not be needed anymore—just sit back and let Warbucks and Annie shine. But Root does not settle for that, for every scene she brings a strong, vibrant, and compassionate human being that takes an easily dismissible character on stage, a hoverer around the main action, and quietly and effectively makes her an essential part of the story—Root insists that we see Grace as the enabler who makes Annie and Warbucks
shine in their own stories. I love the costume choices that help make her that shining light that refuses not to be seen, and yet, again, is always pointing her light at others, for others.
If I could, and I had enough time and space, I would mention every performer and every technician by name, but as I said with the girls chorus, that would make this review impossibly long. So I will just mention other stand-outs while emphatically acknowledging that the entire show, cast, technician and artesian choices and executions where all of excellent quality. The whole production team and cast knows that a great show does not happen without the great contribution of every single person. Kudos to all for this excellent show!
Having said that, some other standouts for me (and for my wife too) who soaked in the show:
- Each and every actor in the girls’ chorus.
- Zaccary Cue as the sleazy and irrepressible Rooster Hannigan, who did fabulous singing and dancing, and made us despise him as well. As well as his sidekick, Janae Erikson who did the amazing job of helping to humanize him, while we still wanted to despise her as well: thanks to both actors; they were a match made in hell. (And we delighted in our collective nonverbal hissing at them).
- Paul Honold, who somehow in voice, manner, and comportment, really did cause all of us to time-travel back to the 30s: I truly believed we were at a radio show performance!
- The fabulous Boylan sisters were also a laugh and a time warp. Great job!
- Kudos to all the Presidential board members, who again, thank you directors, came off as individualized and distinct.
- Gary Gardner was the perfect choice for playing a somewhat whimsical and foggy
President Roosevelt.
- And my wife and I’s personal standout—we just loved Isaiah McFarland’s multiple and very distinct differing characters! Every character he played was so whimsical and fun! We perked up whenever he was on stage, because he was always a surprise in so many little comments and nonverbal antics. A joy to watch! He commanded our attention.
What else can I highlight? The lights must have been great because as I heard someone say once, if the lighting technicians are doing their job, you won’t notice them because they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do—empowering the focus of the audiences’ gaze without drawing attention—and I usually focus on lighting! But it must have been excellent because I forgot to pay attention to it!
And if you weren’t paying attention to the subtext in my paragraph about the girls’ chorus, let me shout it aloud here: THE CHOREOGRAPHY AND MUSICAL SCENES THROUGHOUT THE SHOW WERE AMAZING, COMPELLING, AND CHARACTER-DRIVEN. Thank you all three choreographers and Mattingly! Sometimes choreography and musical direction almost feels incidental to a show: thank you for creating a distinct character-driven musical masterpiece.
What a joy to watch--and totally opposite of my lighting comments above—we certainly noticed and were immersed in the musical numbers throughout.
Which leaves me with all three directors—kudos to all three of you. The “musical masterpiece” comment above does not come from nowhere. Whatever you all did to make this tremendous and difficult collaborative endeavor work so very, very well—remember it; bottle it; use it; learn from it; treasure it; and cherish it! This performance was as thankfully yours, as it was ours as the audience! Such directorially intelligent and oh-so-accurate emotional choices!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you all.
It was an honor to come and experience this performance.
Pastor John Pea
