Annie at the Theatre Royal St. Helens Review
Annie
Theatre Royal, St. Helens
13-15 October 2016
Reviewed by Linzi Davies
The Pilkington Musical Theatre Company took to the stage to perform in the well known and loved by all, family hit musical, Annie. Since the original film set in the early 1930’s was reworked in the hit film of 2015 starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz, children up and down the country have been whistling, the sun’ll come out tomorrow and dancing to It’s a Hard Knock Life making it the must see musical. The show performed tonight in St Helens was an extremely good amateur production but it was missing that panache of a Broadway musical which left me a little bit disappointed. The show was based on the original script, depicting a local billionaire, Oliver Warbucks who somewhat bizarrely decided to take home a young orphan to spend the Christmas period with him at his mansion, much to Miss Hannigan’s anger who clearly showed no affection for the red haired cocky child chosen.
The musical opened with the orphans chilling in their dormitory and to be fair they were the pic of the cast. The energy and enthusiasm depicted by the children was a delight to watch and Annie was most definitely a very talented lady with a lovely voice which shone in the theatre watched undoubtedly by lots of friends and family. A special mention to the youngest of the orphans who did her very best to steal the limelight from Annie and Sandy the dog.
In my opinion, the children were let down by the adults in this production. Other than, Miss Hannigan and Warbucks personal assistant, who had an amazing voice, they were backed up by mainly substandard stilted acting, singing and performances.
The choreography was slow and absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, the odd bob up and down here coupled with a little bit of a sideways shuffle there, it just cried out for so much more. Some of the artists were extremely difficult to understand and American accents quite often dropped out to reveal Irish and Scouse amongst others. The orchestra were sooo loud and often drowned out the singing which was mainly of a good standard.
The sets were simple and low budget which was fine as they did complement the production and were enough to have the audience believing the grandeur of the mansion and poverty of the orphanage.
Sandy the dog was fabulous and Annie did extremely well to keep treat feeding from her pocket to keep her on the stage as her trusty sidekick. Overall it was ok, parents of the children in the show should be very proud, it was enjoyable night out but not the dazzling performance I was hoping for.
Rating: 3/5
Tickets cost from £12 to £45.
Annie is at the Theatre Royal in St. Helens until 15 October 2016. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 01744 756000.
St. Helens Theatre Royal, Corporation Street, St.Helens, Merseyside, WA10 1LQ
