Annie

Annie is a musical which audiences clearly never tire of, as it returns to Milton Keynes Theatre this week to play to a packed house. With the welcome return of Strictly judge Craig Revel-Horwood as tyrannical Miss Hannigan and Alex Bourne as Daddy Warbucks.

Annie is undoubtedly an enduring classic, lingering since the seventies with some of the best known show tunes and a timless plot about optimism in the face of adversity.

It traces the journey of 11-year-old Annie, who flees Miss Hannigan's orphanage to seek her birth parents. Along her journey, she befriends a dog briefly, then crosses paths with billionaire Oliver Warbucks. While Warbucks initially envisioned a young boy to brighten his Christmas, Annie's plucky spirit captures his heart. The twist arises when she desires to find her real parents just as he considers adopting her.

Anyone going to see this show will be braced for an onslaught of precocious dancing orphans singing about their hard knock life, but even the most cynical will find this production has an infectious happiness which is hard to resist. By the end, most of the audience were joining in with a final verse of “The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow”.

The producers have re-imagined the staging to celebrate the art deco design of New York during the Great Depression with the architecture of the city represented in giant proportions in the set to give a child’s perspective mixed with jigsaw pieces, apparently to symbolise how Annie tries to piece together her life. The dancing also harks back to the thirties with some acrobatic jumping around, tap dancing and leg kicks in the style of Fred Astaire.

Three very talented teams of kids share the roles of Annie and her orphan pals – Zoe Akinyosade, Harlie Barthram and Sharangi Gnanavarathan with Zoe giving a gutsy and confident performance on press night, belting out the songs with irrepressible cheeriness. Craig Revel-Horwood steals the show as Miss Hannigan, strutting around the stage and flashing his legs. There is also a great performance from Alex Bourne as Warbucks with a fantastic deep voice and stage presence. Amber from Animals Galore also makes a welcome return as Annie’s dog Sandy, although very much under-used, just running across the front of the stage during several scene changes but disappointingly absent from the plot for most of the show.

This is a show which is great for the family to enjoy together with plenty of kids in the audience enjoying the performance. The songs never age, the plot is compelling and timeless, and although cynics might find Oliver Warbucks a little creepy, there is a charming innocence to this musical which shines through.