ANITA SAVES BLAND ANNIE
ANNIE KING’S THEATRE, GLASGOW 16.04
ANNIE is colourful, happy and ultimately an uplifting tale but, sadly in this case, it is also somewhat insipid.
The plot, for anyone living under a rock for the last 43 years, revolves around a precocious, ginger-haired and irrationally optimistic orphan desperately seeking her parents who is chosen to spend Christmas with the billionaire Oliver Warbucks.
But there is no real bite and even little Annie herself seemed a bit detached from the proceedings at times.
The humorous bits were lacking the necessary comic edge and the soloists were little more than average.
But the jigsaw set and the choreography were alive and bright and thank the Lord for rent-a-drunk Anita Dobson as Miss Hannigan.
Dobson had years of practise as the alcoholtippling Angie in EastEnders but even she, on her worst days, didn’t come close to the childhating dipsomaniac who runs the orphanage in which Annie and her cohorts are little more than prisoners. Dobson shone in an otherwise uninspiring cast. But the children who made up the little orphans were endearing and coped admirably with the cleverly worked out dance routines, albeit their diction when trying to cope with the New York accents needed some work. However, tried and trusted earworms such as Tomorrow and It’s A Hard Knock Life got the audience in the mood for this large dose of schmaltz and the little ones who managed to stay awake loved it. Run ends tomorrow.