The Broadway staple "Annie," is doing the rounds at the Palace Theatre in Manhattan and this verison of this classic is being re worked by Tony Award winning director James Lapine.
The Broadway show that debuted on Thursday got very mixed reviews from critics who came out to see the revamped 1977 musical.
Lapine who has chosen Lilla Crawford as his "Annie," Tony Award winning Katie Finneran as his "Miss Hannigan" and Anthony Warlow as big spending "Oliver 'Daddy' Warbucks" will have them as the stars for the duration of this big play.
As reported by the NY Times, Ben Brantley.
"You don't feel like hissing this Miss Hannigan, which adds an addling ambivalence to the show and once you think of Warbucks as a real person, his blossoming love for little Annie can register as a bit creepy in the age of 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," he went on to say that Lilla Crawford was "pretty close to perfect in the tile role."
In the report by the LA Times it said that Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal said "the only way to make it worth seeing is to stage it so well as to paper over it's lack of distinction," but went on to say that director Lapine "is a theatrical alchemist who has the power to turn tinsel into solid gold."
A more favorable view came from Newsday's Linda Winer when she commended the music in the production "Tomorrow" -- "Lapine's handsome yet lovable vision finds the emotional core without losing the cartoon magic."
While Joe Dziemianowicz of New YoRK dAILY offers a split view on some elements of the production, he said. "Finneran's more complicated take on Miss Hannigan was problematic: she works very hard...It shows and the role shrinks as a result. But he's another 'Annie' fan, and came away pleased: "If this take seldom crosses the line into something must-see special (it doesn't), even a simply good production of 'Annie' offers rewards."
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