We were gifted tickets to Annie The Musical at Wales Millenium Centre for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own. Contains spoilers. I am not a professional theatre reviewer, just a mum who likes going to see musicals which her daughter.
Last night I surprised Pops with a trip to the theatre to see Annie The Musical currently showing at Wales Millenium centre until the end of August. We are both BIG fans of the film Annie. Whilst we enjoy the newer one our favourite has to be the original 1982 version, which is what the theatre version is based on.
Whenever I watch Annie it reminds me of Easter, scoffing my eggs as a child watching the film on TV. I loved the film so much I named my stuffed dog after the dog in the film, although I was convinced the dog was called Sally for some reason and that’s the name I went with.
What is Annie The Musical about?
If you’ve seen the film you will already know it’s about a young girl named Annie who lives in an orphanage run by Miss Hannigan, whos a bit of a nutty drunk. It’s set in 1930s New York.
Annie as well as the other girls who live there are treated poorly and made to clean up and get shouted at a lot. Now I’m a mother I’m actually seeing this from a different perspective. I only have two girls, imagine having as many as Miss Hannigan… It would turn anyone to drink haha!
The story follows Annie on her hunt for her parents, she gets invited along to stay with a billionaire who ends up wanting to adopt her. They try to find her parents with no luck, except for Miss Hannigan’s brother Rooster and his girlfriend Lily who try to scam them for the reward money only to be found out and arrested, along with Miss Hannigan for helping them.
It has a lot of the songs from the original movie as well as a few new ones.
Annie The Musical Cast –
Annie – Mia Lakha
Miss Hannigan – Craig Revel Horwood
Rooster – Richard Meek
Lily – Jenny Gayner
Grace – Carolyn Maitland
Oliver Warbucks – Alex Bourne
Find out more about the other cast and the creative team on the website.
Cast may vary on night, especially with the children.
What did we think of Annie The Musical?
Like I said we are really big fans of the film so although I was really excited to see it up on stage I was really nervous if it would be as good and it was. It was incredible. There’s something so mesmerizing about seeing children on stage and performing at that level. It’s mind blowing. The kids really held their own up there and I think they made the show.
I was pleasantly surprised by Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan but for me having a man play the role made it a bit too panto. Like with Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the musical, I just don’t see why it needs to be played by a man when it was as good if not better played by a woman originally.
I would highly recommend the show, It was fun and busy and exactly what you would expect from Annie The Musical, if not more.
What is your favourite song from the original film? Would you like to go see Annie The Musical?
See the website for more dates, times and locations of the tour.
Until the next post.
**Show photo credit – Paul Coltas**
