Annie Blog

Stories about underdogs are always inspiring. The underdogs seem to always have optimistic attitudes, and they never let huge obstacles keep them from pursuing exactly what they want to achieve. Annie the Musical, tells the heartwarming story of a child underdog who never gives up hope in finding her long lost parents, but ultimately is adopted by the richest man in the universe. A new rendition is on its way to television, so we’ll look at the various versions of this famous story.

Origins of the “Annie,” story date back as early as 1885, when James Whitcomb Riley wrote a poem originally called “The Elf Child.” Riley learned the story of a young girl named Mary Alice “Allie” Smith who lost both her parents when she was nine years old, but was taken under the wing of Captain Reuben Riley and his wife Elizabeth to help with their housework and children, ultimately becoming part of their family. Riley changed the name of the poem to “Little Orphan Allie” in the poem’s third printing, but a typesetting error caused the poem to be renamed to “Little Orphan Annie.”

Flash forward to the early 1920s, and cartoonist Harold Gray, at the time employed by the Chicago Tribune, got the idea for a comic strip called Little Orphan Otto. It was changed to Little Orphan Annie by Chicago Tribune editor Joseph Medill Patterson and was published on August 5th, 1924. Gray created the comic strip in the hopes that it could one day be adapted into film and/or radio. Not only would that happen a few years later, but the comic strip continued appearing as a regular in the “Tribune,” for the next 76 years, until May 13th, 2010.

NBC Radio adapted the comic strip in 1931 and hired Pierre Andre to narrate the program solo with Alan Wallace directing. The radio program continued to air until 1942, and Little Orphan Annie was adapted for film the next year. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, it starred Mitzi Green as the main character. Paramount Pictures released their own version of Little Orphan Annie six years later, in 1938, with Ann Gillis in the title role.

Nearly 40 later, Broadway composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Martin Charnin decided to adapt “Little Orphan Annie” for the stage. The show opened at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre) on April 21st, 1977 and starred Andrea McArdle. While movie audiences were falling deeply in love with Star Wars (1977) at the time, Broadway fell for “Annie,” and the show won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It ran for six years, and closed on January 2nd, 1983, playing a record 2,377 performances and making it the longest running show at the Alvin Theatre at the time. (It was surpassed in 2009 by Hairspray with 2,642 performances.)

Before long the musical caught the attention of Hollywood, and in May of 1982, the original film version of the musical was released by Columbia Pictures. Directed by veteran Director John Huston and starring Aileen Quinn as Annie, Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan, and Albert Finney as “Daddy” Warbucks, the movie-musical flopped at the box office, but has gained a cult status today. Strouse and Charnin also produced sequel musicals: Annie 2: Miss Hannigan’s Revenge in 1989 and Annie Warbucks in 1992, though neither eclipsed the success of the original Broadway hit. A sequel to the 1982 film, Annie: A Royal Adventure! was produced in 1996, but it wasn’t particularly well-received either. Broadway revived the musical for the first time in 1997, though it only played 239 performances.  

In 1999, however, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) Network adapted the musical to air as part of The Wonderful World of Disney (1991-present). This film starred Alicia Morton as Annie, Victor Garber as “Daddy” Warbucks, Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan, and Audra McDonald as Grace Farrell. It even featured a cameo by Andrea McArdle. Directed and choreographed by Broadway veteran Rob Marshall, the film was so well-received that it wound up being a bigger hit for ABC than the original 1982 film was for Columbia. The film aired on ABC on November 7th (22 years ago today!) and it was thanks to this film’s success that Rob Marshall would continue to work with Disney: directing and choreographing Chicago (2002), which earned him a Best Director Oscar Nomination, as well as directing Into the Woods (2014), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), and the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid (2023). (When directing “Into the Woods,” Marshall directed Lilla Crawford in the role of Little Red Riding Hood, who coincidentally had originated Annie in Broadway’s 2012 revival of the show!)

A documentary about the perspectives of those who have played Annie or any of the orphans on Broadway called Life After Tomorrow was produced in 2006. “Annie,” was then re-produced in 2014 by Columbia, though distributed by Sony. This version featured a modern/contemporary version of the plot and took place in “present day” New York rather than “Great Depression,” New York and featured Oscar-Nominee Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie, Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan, Rose Byrne as Grace Farrell, and Jamie Foxx as Benjamin Stacks (a modernized name for Oliver Warbucks.) On December 2nd, 2021, NBC will air an all-new live broadcast of Annie that will star Celina Smith as Annie, Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan, Harry Connick Jr. as “Daddy Warbucks, and Nicole Sherzinger as Grace Farrell.

“Annie,” is a special musical because in addition to being about optimism, it’s about how sometimes life doesn’t always turn out the way you had hoped, but what happens instead can still be pretty good. As they sing in the show “the sun will come out tomorrow.” The show has a unique place in the history of musical theatre, and it will continue to be loved.