What better opportunity than to be invited to view and write a review on my all time childhood favourite film of Annie which is showing at The Orchard Theatre Dartford from 29th September to Saturday 3rd October, and so I jumped at the chance and who better to accompany me and input his own review than my 9 year old son.
As a huge fan of the original and so an obvious critic to any adaptation of it I was pleasantly surprised that the scenery was very similar and in perfect fitting to that of the original and with the songs being the same and so no shocked surprises as in that of the remake of the famous film “Charlie and the chocolate factory”.
There were a few songs that I noticed were replaced, like “dumb dog” which was replaced with “tomorrow”, and a walk to the cinema, while a scenery change was taking place and with the final escape from the clutches of Rooster Hannigan being replaced with some FBI investigation resulting in his and Lily St Regis’ arrests and Miss Hannigan being taken off in a straight jacket, the overall feel of the show was excellent and well received from both myself and my son who stayed well behaved and glued to his seat for the entire performance!
Simone Craddock, who played Grace Farrell displayed a striking resemblance to the original character and Sue Pollard a fun Miss Hannigan as well as David McAlister, who played Oliver Warbucks just as brilliantly as to remind me of my wish as a little girl to have my own Daddy Warbucks come and adopt me, not that I was an orphan of course, but oh how we fantasise as children!
There was a lovely Christmas twist and with excellent scenery including a magnificent mansion stair case and huge decorated Christmas tree and even an automobile!
Annie had a straight red bob throughout but ended in the famous Red dress and tight curled hair with a warm felt reunion with her orphan friends I thoroughly enjoyed this show and am positive anyone else will also including mums, dads and especially children.
And so my recommendation is to get yourself down to The Orchard Theatre before this Saturday to see Annie as it will be a show you too will be pleased you did not miss out on seeing for yourself!
