Annie *** (1999, Kathy Bates, Victor Garber, Alan Cumming, Alicia Morton) – Classic Movie Review 1885

This surprise 1999 remake of the 1982 movie by Rob Marshall, the director of Chicago, is very entertaining.

Disney’s remake follows the successful 1998 Broadway revival of the show. It is well regarded as a more faithful adaptation of the musical. So happily it’s still easy to sit back and enjoy bright renditions of Charles Strouse’s jolly score once more in this nicely filmed version of the Broadway hit, based on Harold Gray’s 1930s comic strip Little Orphan Annie.

In the famous story, the 1930s little orphan Annie is rescued from a life of misery and poverty and the orphanage by an incredibly rich and mushy-hearted benefactor called Daddy Warbucks, who takes her into his home and then his heart.

Victor Garber’s bald-headed tycoon Daddy Warbucks and Alicia Morton’s spunky moppet Annie are delightful. But Kathy Bates steals the show as cruel orphanage boss Miss Hannigan and Alan Cumming is also good camp fun as her evil brother Rooster Hannigan. Both performers take comedy relief to the max. And of course everything is exactly right with the vintage all-time-great toe-tapping or heart-tugging vintage show tunes like ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘It’s the Hard Knock Life’.

Rob Marshall won an Emmy for Best Choreography, which is outstanding, and Paul Bogaev another Emmy for the Best Music Direction. There were 10 other Emmy nominations. Andrea McArdle, the first little girl to play Annie on Broadway in the original stage production of 1977, has the cameo role of Star-To-Be.

Another surprise came with a sequel, Annie 2 in 1995 and again in 2014 with a second remake.

Annie opened at the Alvin Theatre in April 1977, played for 2,377 performances and won the 1977 Tony Award for Best Musical and the 1977 Tony for Best Book of a Musical.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1885

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