Photo provided Lilly Charlton will portray the spunky and adorable title character Annie Bennett in the The Park Theatre Civic Centre’s production of “Annie.”
NORTH VERNON – Direct from a Depression-era orphanage in New York City, Little Orphan Annie is making her way to Jennings County.
With memorable songs that includes the irresistibly optimistic “Tomorrow,” the musical “Annie” is expected to be a significant part of North Vernon’s Christmas in the City celebration. The Park Theatre Civic Centre will present the award-winning musical on Dec. 4, 6, 7 and 8.
But while the opening night curtain won’t rise for another month, three of the four performances are already sold out. As Annie might say: “Leapin Lizards!”
Tickets are only available for the 6:30 p.m. performance on Wednesday, Dec. 4. The cost is $15 in advance or $20 at the door (if any tickets are still available). Children will be admitted for $5.
The theatre’s box office is open from 2 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Tickets can also be obtained on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Only cash and checks are accepted. To make arrangements to reserve tickets, call 812-346-0330.
Chicago native Dave George is directing the production. While the Ball State University graduate is a professionally trained musician, both he and his wife, Jenny, have established themselves with musical theatre in Jennings County, show producer and theatre board president Patti Yount said.
George directed the theatre’s 20-year celebration production last fall, and appeared last March in “Hollywood, a Musical Review.” For the upcoming production, Jenny George will serve as assistant director and lighting technician.
Music director Rachel Rodriguez and her husband, technical director Andrew Rodriguez, are also professional musicians who have made their home recording studio available for the production, Yount said.
“We take these kids and the adults to the studio and record them, so they can practice with the track music,” Yount said. “I mean, this is as professional as you are going to get.”
In addition to lending his technical expertise, Andrew Rodriguez will come out of the wings to portray Daddy Warbucks.
While a total of 110 performers auditioned, Yount said the show could only accommodate a cast of 52 people. Lilly Charlton was chosen for the plum role of the spunky and adorable title character Annie Bennett.
Although Yount said Lilly will be a fantastic Annie, the producer adds all the girls portraying the orphans with “a hard knock life” are amazing.
“We told the adults that if they don’t pick it up, the audience is going to be yelling at us to bring the orphans back,” the show producer said.
Those who have only seen John Huston’s 1982 film adaptation of the musical have no idea “Annie” was always intended to be a Christmas show, Yount said. Huston was forced to change the season because New York officials wouldn’t allow his production to film during the busy holiday season.
But the production at the Park Theatre will more than emphasize the significance of the Christmas season on the story, she said.
Finally, a fun fact about the main character’s roots. All of the creators and inspirations of Little Orphan Annie were Hoosiers.
For example, the man who created the popular “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip in 1924 was Harold Gray. Raised in West Lafayette, Gray worked at a daily newspaper across the Wabash River in Lafayette to make money to pay for his 1917 engineering degree from Purdue University.
Gray based his main character on the writings of Greenfield-born James Whitcomb Riley, who introduced a character called “Little Orphant Annie” in his 1885 poem “The Elf Child.”
Annie was inspired by a real person named Mary Alice “Allie” Smith. Riley said she was an orphan from Union County who lived in his Indianapolis home during her childhood.
