A live production of the musical Annie, dubbed “Annie Live!”, was recently performed and filmed in real-time on NBC. 

This version was mainly based on the 1977 Broadway edition of Annie while also drawing inspiration from other iterations of the story.

The show featured a star-studded cast, including Celina Smith from The Lion King as Annie, Harry Connick Jr. as Daddy Warbucks, Tituss Burgess from The Little Mermaid as Rooster, Megan Hilty as Lily St. Regis, and Taraji P. Henson from Hidden Figures as Miss Hannigan.

“I thought the performance was great. I actually had a few friends who were in it, and I was so proud of them,” said WJPS senior Katherine Pappas. 

Tituss Burgess and Taraji P. Henson hit the mark perfectly when portraying two of the main antagonists of the musical, illustrating a side of their acting range we don’t always get to see. 

Celina Smith’s vocals were stunning and equally on point, and the casting was impeccable.

Despite such fantastic casting, however, there was still some problems with obtaining an audience, given the declining success of televised musicals in the past years.

“That makes me sad. I love Broadway, and I’m also very anxious about COVID. However, despite such fantastic casting so to be able to watch a live musical production like this makes me happy,” said WJPS teacher Ms. Bonanni in response to this trend of decline.

Overall, “Annie Live!” was an excellent musical performance, and I hope to see more performances like this in the future.

“Annie Movie” by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0