When I heard that ANNIE was coming back to Broadway (again), I was flooded with memories from my own youth. As Peter Allen once famously said “Everything old is new again…” and that can certainly be said about Broadway where revivals are a big staple these days since new musicals are hard to come by. As a teenager I was living in New York with relatives including an aunt who worked as a soprano in Broadway musicals. I had a parttime job selling Broadway souvenirs (cast recordings, keychains and dolls) at Broadway’s biggest hit: ANNIE, which began life at the ALVIN THEATRE on West 52nd Street in 1977. I worked for a man named Ray Fanning who ran the merchandise counters in many Broadway shows and whom I still occasionally see strolling the theatre district today at age 85. Ray lives at 888 Eighth Avenue (52nd St) near the Alvin Theatre which is where many of the out-of-town children in ANNIE were housed by the producers with their Moms while in town doing the show.
Setting up my merchandise counter at the theatre before the house opened each evening and matinee, I would chat with the many ANNIE “stage moms” and kids who were hanging out in the front of the house before the doors opened to the ticket-holders. Since ANNIE is a show with lots of kids, there were always Moms, Dads, brothers & sisters, aunts, uncles, etc. hanging out. Parties were frequent at ANNIE…every child’s birthday was celebrated with a cake and gifts in the theatre, trips to events and museums and water parks, etc. were organized thru the show on the days off. Many famous people came to see ANNIE since it was the big hit of the day. I recently found the ticket stubs for the tickets when I took my parents on July 4 holiday matinee. Third row center orchestra seats for the hottest show in town: $23 each!!
I became friends with so many of these folks including orginal Annie Andrea McArdle and her Mom Phyllis, her successor Shelley Bruce (real name: Michelle Merklinghaus…Bruce was her Dad’s name. Her Mom was Marge); Shelley was the “Annie” who they discovered had leukemia and left her role prematurely to have treatment. She beat the disease and is now happily grown with a family of her own. When Shelley left ANNIE suddenly, the role was up for grabs so 12-year old Sarah Jessica Parker was promoted from the chorus of ANNIE orphans into the lead role. I still recall that the theatre was abuzz with the gossip that Sarah didn’t want to cut her long, brown hair and dye it red so she almost lost the role, but eventually she relented. Sarah was a ballet child…slim with a long neck, hair always up in a bun as she was constantly coming from dance class. I would hang out with Sarah’s brother Toby and play pinball and video games in the Broadway arcade when the show was on. We’d also hang in Sarah’s dressing room and do homework. Sarah grew quickly and only lasted as “Annie” under a year. It was essential that Annie was small and looked age 11. When the Annies started sprouting breasts and curves as well as height, it looked strange when Daddy Warbucks bounced her on his lap. I was in Sarah’s dressing room on her last day as Annie along with Brooke Shields and her Mom Teri and most of Sarah’s brothers and sisters. We were all cleaning out and loading the Parker station wagon because the NEXT Annie, Alison Smith was waiting in the wings to move in.
Most of the ANNIES were typical child stars…very mature for their ages….11 going on 35 so to speak, including Andrea and Sarah. Shelley was a more typical mischievous kid with a wild streak. Allison Smith was a natural redhead which the others were not, and the youngest Annie at age 9, even though Annie was supposed to be 11. I think the producers were tired of constantly changing Annies because age 11-12 is an age when the growth spurt typically happens with kids and here was a smallish child at age 9 who could stay for awhile without growing up too fast. Allison was a nervous, insecure child who needed constant reassurance. She loved to sit on my lap backstage and had a terrible nervous habit of biting her nails which her Mom said replaced sucking her thumb. A few years later she grew into a lovely teenager and became the daughter on TV show KATE & ALLIE. My friend Laurie Warner was the “Annie child wrangler” which means she was in charge of keeping the kids corralled and happy at events such as Night of 100 Stars, the TODAY show, the Macy’s Parade, etc. I was there at several events to help Laurie because the kids like me so much. The cast was invited to the Carter White House to perform numbers from the show in the East Room.
I’m still friendly with Andrea McArdle who you can still hear on the original Broadway cast recording (who I recently went to see at her nightclub act in 54BELOW, the new space below STUDIO 54). I’m also friends with Diana Barrows (one of the original orphan kids in the show whose trademark expression was “Oh My Goodness”) and some others. I remember 3 years into the show they added a black child as an orphan because of criticism that there were no blacks in the show. Her name was Jodie and she was adorable…
It will be interesting to see what they do with the “new” ANNIE which I understand is much more racially diverse than the original from the Jimmy Carter years. And I’ve also heard that an all-black ANNIE is coming soon starring Willow Smith the daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Comments