‘Annie’ review: Will you get the adorbs with the Broadway national tour in Fort Lauderdale?

Rod Stafford Hagwood, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·2 min read

Resistance is futile.

Oh sure, you can try, but the winsome little tykes singing their hearts out in the national tour of “Annie” will charm you no matter what you do. They are THAT cute. Cute squared. Nuclear-powered cute. You know, that kind of calculating cute that some people spell “kewt” and you don’t even groan because that’s how darn cute they are.

The non-Equity cast, all perfectly diverse, has a lot to work with in this Broadway musical now playing at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale for a two-week run. That’s because the true and enduring star of the show is the score.

Toe-tapping tunes such as “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” “Little Girls,” “N.Y.C.,” “Easy Street” and “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” along with power ballads “Maybe” and “Tomorrow,” are all executed well — if not with a bit of an autopilot feel hovering around. Some of the supporting cast need a little more pizzazz-y power in their vocals, and the choreography has one or two baffling moves pop up here and there.

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But what the whole production gets right is that evocation of one-dimensional cartoonish antics, much like the Harold Gray “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip that inspired it: The sets are suggestions, swooping in and out of place; the humor is as broad as a Borscht Belt standup act, and the acting is almost all exclamatory (every other line seems to be a pronouncement).

The musical-comedy follows Annie (Rainier “Rainey” Trevino) as she is swept from Miss Hannigan’s (Stefanie Londino) clutches in a Depression-era orphanage into Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks’ (Christopher Swan) mansion on Fifth Avenue.

While trying to find her birth parents, Annie inspires FDR’s New Deal and, with the help of the federal government, puts the kibosh on the oleaginous bunko schemes of Miss Hannigan, her brother Rooster (Jeffrey T. Kelly) and his moll, Lily (Samantha Stevens) during a two-hour performance with a 20-minute intermission.

“Annie” premiered on Broadway in 1977, going on to win seven Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical. The show has been revived on the Great White Way twice, in 1997 and 2012. The musical also made it to the big screen twice, in 1982 and 2014.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Annie”

WHEN: Through Oct. 22

WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale

COST: $45-$126

INFORMATION: 954-462-0222; browardcenter.org