It’s safe to bet your bottom dollar that come what may there will be a bit of extra sun on Bainbridge Island this holiday season.
A cheerfully optimistic, vivacious little ray of sun beneath a crimson coif.
Get ready for a break from your own “Hard Knock Life” to take a stroll down “Easy Street” and get excited about “Tomorrow” again (it’s only a day away, you know), because Ovation! Performing Arts Northwest is bringing “Annie” home for Christmas.
The original 1977 Broadway production racked up an array of awards and ran for a record-breaking six years, inspiring numerous other productions in many other countries and regular national tours, too.
Folks just can’t get enough of that plucky little orphan, it would seem.
Despite the show’s Great Depression-era setting, which was historical even when it premiered, director and Ovation! co-founder Ron Milton said the world of “Annie” is almost eerily prescient of, and totally familiar to, today’s America.
“The country is almost in the identical shape it was, though the stock market’s better, in 1931,” he said, citing especially similar economic and political concerns of the two eras. “It’s so ironic.”
Issues from our own headlines: the start of an uncertain new political administration and the issues of income inequality and rampant homelessness, for instance, are all addressed in the show, Milton said.
Despite all that decidedly serious subject matter (don’t forget the main character is a poverty-stricken orphan, after all), the show remains endearing for the way the audience by way of Annie’s example learns the power of positivity and optimism, arguably the most fundamental American trait of all.
“It’s really well-written,” Milton said. “It pulls the audience through the whole gamut of what the holidays mean to a lot of people.”
Stepping into the smiling starring role in this production is Audrey Trabucco, 13, making only her second on-stage appearance.
“Annie” was a show she knew she wanted to be a part of right away, the Woodward middle schooler said.
“I really love the music,” she said. “When I was a kid I used to watch the movie a ton. It was one of my favorite movies — we actually wrecked the disc because I watched it so much — and I really like the character because she’s so hopeful.”
“It’s a show that shows how resilient young women can be,” Milton agreed.
Trabucco said both of her parents are “huge theater people,” which initially turned her off to the idea of performing at all.
“When I was a little girl, I hated my mom singing around the house,” she said. “I hated everything she did with theater and I vowed to never do theater because of that. My dad was like, ‘You should try out for [Ovation!’s] ‘Young Frankenstein.’’ So I tried out and I got in and then I really knew that I liked theater.”
Having nabbed the lead in “Annie,” and faced with a fat script and a lot of lines to learn, mom got cooler real quick. The parental assistance and the previous love of the material paid off big, according to the director, who said he was incredibly impressed with Trabucco’s early grasp of the role.
“She’s doing extremely well,” Milton said of the show’s little leading lady. “Her natural bent on developing the role, she hasn’t had that much experience, is really almost right on.
“It’s a tour de force when you’re a young performer to be the title character in a show this big,” he added.
The rest of the cast is a mix of well-known players and fresh faces.
Returning Ovation! favorites Matty McCaslin (Daddy Warbucks) and Myriah Riedel (Grace Farrell) round out the top trio with Trabucco. The villains are played by Andrea Ogg (Miss Hannigan), Todd Baylor (Rooster) and Tori Konig (Lily St. Regis). Jon Payne, Dale Bye, Miles Yanick, Bella Hyde, Elizabeth Cromwell and Marla Jones Price complete the main roster. The adult ensemble also includes Connie Bye, Meghan Smith, Dale Bye, Claire Jackson, Elizabeth Cromwell, Juliette Dashe, Tina Kirkpatrick and Ethan Macey Cushman.
The young orphan ensemble includes Ellie Osburn, Gracie Payne, Leela Vosshall, Morgan Soltes, Sofia Campagna, Ella Carson-Holt, Saiya McElderry, Aster Pitts, Kayla Cortes, Millie Peterson, Alex Douthart, Esther Gleeman, Caroline Payne, Nicole Washington, Kiera Bertram, Riley Fanberg, Lizzy West and Lyra Cromwell.
Even for a group like Ovation!, which specializes in incorporating younger cast members into every show, “Annie” boasts a lot of kids. The cast consists of about 20 (60 came to try out) and just 10 adults. The youngest orphan is just 7 years old.
It was something Milton said he was excited to see at tryouts and was eager to utilize on stage.
“These kids really pull their weight,” he said. “They’re out there and they’re fighting for perfection in every single thing that they’re doing.
“The journey we’ve taken as a cast from that first rehearsal — which, with 20 kids was pretty hairy — to where they’re at now, they have no idea how good they really are right now.”
As the lead, Trabucco said she considers it part of her role to inspire and guide the younger members of the cast, as well as incorporate some of that Annie-style optimism when things get stressful.
“I want to set an example for them so they can be better, do the best they can,” she said. “Because they’re really so adorable and so precious and I’m always telling my friends, ‘I love my cast members, especially the little ones.’”
The final member of the crew, making his stage debut in the role of Annie’s canine companion is Trabucco’s own dog Buster, a 5-year-old maltese, only the second non-human thespian to ever appear in an Ovation! show.
“He’s not very well-trained,” Trabucco laughed. “We hadn’t really worked on training him before this show.”
Still, you can’t put a price on true chemistry, Milton said. And for the dog to be able to run to his actual owner — they even changed the dog’s name in the show to Buster so he wouldn’t get confused — has made all the difference.
The beloved musical’s latest reincarnation will run Friday to Sunday from Dec. 2 through Dec. 18 at the Bainbridge High School theater. Shows are 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Get tickets, $24 for adults, $22 for seniors, students and military and $19 for those 12 or younger, online at www.ovationmtb.com or by phone at 1-800-838-3006. Tickets can also be purchased, as available, at the door.
