Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow

The good stuff is coming back again!! For the first time since about May (!), I went out with my best friend earlier this week to Manchester for a trip out to the Opera House for the UK Tour of family favourite Annie, starring Strictly's Craig Revel Horwood as the tyrannical Miss Hannigan!

The story of everyone's favourite red-headed orphan, with music and lyrics by Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse, made its Broadway premiere in 1977, and won 7 Tonys, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for Dorothy Louden as Miss Hannigan; a London production followed in 1983 with Sheila Hancock as Miss Hannigan. On screen, Annie has been adapted 3 times; firstly the well known 1982 film version starring Carol Burnett, Aileen Quinn, Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters; secondly the 1999 TV movie with Kathy Bates, Audra Macdonald, Alan Cumming and Kristen Chenoweth; and finally, most recently, the 2014 movie version with Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx and updated music. Phew! I know, that's a lot of names!

Now as you see, Annie has quite a history and it is definitely a show in contention to be a first one for any little ones, and for those slightly older than that, the classic rags-to-riches story is sure to bring up a sense of nostalgia. And with that, let's move on to the performances which stood out for me. 

Firstly was Annie herself, played by Sophie Pettit - a very hard role for a little girl like that to play as she is on stage almost all the time and has to be someone who will connect with the audience over the 2 and 1/2 hours; and I'm glad to say Miss Pettit was brilliant. She was naive, brave and incredibly optimistic. Her performance of Tomorrow blew me away, and her acaplla Maybe (Reprise) made my friend cry.

The second person I just HAVE to mention is Craig Revel Horwood's Miss Hannigan. I have to admit, it was a little bit odd as you knew that it was Revel Horwood, but it WAS also Miss Hannigan. He perfected the character to a T, from being drunk to menacing to just darn right hilarious! He may not be the best singer in the world but it really didn't matter! 

I think there are only two more people to mention and they go together - Jonny Fines as Rooster and Djalenga Scott as Lily. Both hilarious, and for a little kid, Mr Fines was a quite a frightening Rooster. The reason they all get mushed together, is my favourite number from the show -  Easy Street - I absolutely LOVED IT because it was the song in which everything blended perfectly for me: music, choreography, acting, just everything!

As for the other songs, there are the others which everyone knows such as Tomorrow, Maybe and Little Girls, though for me, while all the others are good in their own right, musically, they do all sound very similar to each other and as a result almost blur into each other. Though while we are talking about music, I did enjoy the little pun to New York New York from On The Town in NYC - with dancing sailors =P 

The final point I need to make is a strange one, as it is a topic I don't normally touch upon this in my

reviews, but I want to talk about the originality of the set, particularly the background. It was made up of jigsaw pieces! I watched a video with the director, Nikolai Foster, and it was to symbolise Annie piecing her life together, like a jigsaw, throughout her journey (click here to take you to the tour's website so you can have a look for yourself). And so I mentioned this out because I want to give a shout out to whoever it might have been who had that idea - it was so original, genius!

Now, to wrap up, I do think Annie is worth a watch. True, I do not think it has been the best production I have been to this year - the cast gave it their all and I do not think anyone did a bad job, I just personally feel that there have been more productions this year in which everything has come together better than it has in Annie. 

Despite that though, it was a lot of fun, and brought back a lot of nostalgia, no less for my friend - for her, there were two musicals that she watched as a kid - The Sound of Music and Annie. It is bound to take you back to your childhood as well as look to tomorrow, which, as we all know, is only a day away.