The many conclusions of Annie

I have been informed that I have been neglecting my civic duty to update this blog. So, apologies for the lack of updates over the past several weeks.

Last week I went and saw the Broadway touring production of Annie. I must say it was well done, the music as catchy as ever (especially with a live orchestra), and the cast was quite entertaining. The actress who played Miss Hannigan was absolutely hilarious, though had hair that made her look sorta like Ursula from the Little Mermaid... or Don King... but I digress. Of course, the girl who played Annie did yet another excellent job. And thank goodness that only for the last scene of the whole show does her hair have to look like your typical "Annie" style with the, how do you call it, curl-fro? It looks so much better short and straight like it was for the rest of the show. But I had a point for bringing this up... oh yes... the ending.

Now I've seen one other stage production of Annie a few years back at the 5th Avenue Theatre, as well as being subjected to the 1982 movie production of Annie, starring Carol Burnett at Miss Hannigan, probably hundreds of times since it was one of my sister's favorite movies to watch on video. Oh, yes, one of those that we taped off TV, so it was complete with the commercial breaks with the fabulous 80's commercials. Ah the memories. Anyway... it amazes me how they all have roughly the same plots, but they all ended differently. The one I'm probably most familiar with, the movie, is of course, dramatic to the point of insanity with Annie attempting to escape by climbing a drawn railway bridge... whatever. In hindsight, that's got to be the most superfluous use of drama I can ever imagine. The musical is much more sedate, and apparently true to the playwright's intentions. The bad people are caught without any excessive drama, only a bit of comedy. Annie isn't successfully abducted and there is not a city-wide manhunt to find her. Miss Hannigan is hauled off to jail as she rightfully should be for being a mean and evil fraud (in the movie, somehow she makes a miraculous return to good graces at the end). It just amazes me how everything tries to be over-dramatic... without needing to be so. I'm trying to remember exactly how it ended in the show I saw at the 5th Avenue, but I think it was just somewhere in between. More dramatic than the show I saw last week, but certainly less dramatic than the movie.

I'd say more, but I think that's about all I have to say about it. I guess I had expected that to be more interesting than it ended up, but that's OK. I guess I'm just out of shape after putting off my blog for so long.