Imagine the perfect Platonic Form of a musical.
It has a star-studded cast with amazing vocals and stunning teamwork. The performers move their audience to laughter — or tears — at will. Its story is a deep and profound reflection on the human condition. The viewer leaves the theater a changed man or woman, ready to live the examined life.
Now take all that, and multiply it by six, and you’ve got the Theatre For Youth’s latest spring musical, “Annie Jr.”
The tykes gracing the stage of Jonesville’s Sauk Theatre have managed to put together a truly polished and poignant staging of the 1982 hit musical “Annie.” It’s not just a cutesy kids’ production, either — the show is 24-karat gold. Every number in the musical, be it chorus, duet, or solo sounds genuinely fantastic, not simply because the actors in “Annie Jr.” are good singers (they are, of course), but, more importantly, because you can see exactly how much the players are enjoying themselves onstage. The spirit is contagious.
As becomes evident throughout the performance, the true virtue of “Annie Jr.” is the depth and range of its youthful cast. The show packs a punch with its leads: Charlotte Johnson, age 12, plays a dazzling Annie to high school senior Ezra Hutchinson’s gruff, loveble Oliver Warbucks. They’re funny, sweet, and even tragic, at times. (I cried, Charlotte. Twice. Bravissima.) Frankly, they’re better in the roles than their movie counterparts.
But (and this is more impressive, somehow) the dynamic duo exude a joy and commitment to the bit which permeates every other member of the cast from Jacob Gray, who’s the suave, sly Rooster, down to Marcellus Maas, who makes a terrific debut as the stray dog Sandy. This year’s “Annie, Jr.” isn’t just brilliant because of the gaudy sneer of Isabelle Hutchinson’s Miss Hannigan, nor just because of Ben Johnson’s refined accent and Jeevesian buttling, though both are superlative. It’s not even because little orphan Olive Johnson steals the show yet again within her first 10 minutes onstage, the young rascal.
This show is worth seeing because — as in TFY’s “Seussical Jr.” last year — every single chorus singer or orphan waif is fully at work in making the show as good as it can be. Everyone knows the choreography, and everyone sings or dances just as hard as they can. When I’m at the theatre, I like to watch the minor characters in the background. Those in this production are positively exemplary.
Every actor and actress is fully immersed in his or her role, the multiplicative doubling and redoubling of each individual contribution soaring the production to top a dizzying edifice of thespian excellence far exceeding the sum of its parts. Like a sort of inverse Geryon, who flies Dante to the eighth circle of the Inferno, the cast of “Annie Jr.” lifts their audience from the depths of Miss Hannigan’s infernal orphanage to the brightest heaven of … well, the military-industrial complex (but we don’t need to talk about that part).
Make it to any of the final performances for “Annie Jr.” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 13, or at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15, and you’ll see what I mean. While you’re there, keep an eye out for high school seniors Hannah Kies and Atticus Maas (Grace and FDR, respectively). As the kids say, they cook.
Even if you’ve seen “Annie” a dozen times before, don’t miss out on this one. You’ll walk out of the Sauk with a smile on your face, joy in your heart, and “It’s The Hard-Knock Life” stuck in your head for weeks to come. “Annie Jr.” may be set in New York City, but I think you’re going to like it here in Jonesville.
