ANNIE (1995)
“Annie” brought another set of challenges to which the Musical Theatre group responded with a series of very strong performances. We broke new ground for the group by having our Principal, George Peary, and a two other staff members as members of the cast. This was the first of my many “Alfred Hitchcock” type appearances...I played Fred McCracken (ventriloquist) in the “Radio Hour” (under the stage name of Yar Recned).....so much fun that I now had to think of ways of putting myself in future shows.
A review in one of the local newspapers summed up what proved to be the general thoughts of many of our audience members: “Yale Secondary has put together another great show with its musical production of Annie”...... “They’re really really good actors, aren’t they?” was typical of the comments overheard during the intermission”.......”the whole orchestra was excellent....the young musicians met the challenge (of the musical score) well”. Another Letter we received talked of the lead characters and how they were “excellent and displayed a real sense of professionalism”.... and how the writer thought “the orchestra displayed a real sense of musicianship”. The detailed costumes, props and set were all representative of the 30’s and gave the show its “flavour”. Warbucks’ mansion had a fountain in the set but I won’t repeat the story of the night the fountain leaked all over the stage in rehearsal! (or the language used to describe the catastrophe)
Our double cast “Annies”, and “Grace” did so well but had strong competition from the two “Miss Hannigans” (the latter stealing most of her scenes - especially on their excursions into the audience). However, as a famous actor once said, “never act with children and dogs”......for “Tyler”, the Golden Lab upstaged nearly everybody as the Annie’s famous dog “Sandy”. Tyler got a huge ovation after the scene in which he appeared onstage totally alone looking for Annie ( in reality, he was looking for the bait M&M candy placed onstage by his trainer, Jennifer Tebbutt). Tyler also created havoc onstage the night he accidentally knocked over the “stew” in a scene with the Hooverville residents....Tyler wouldn’t leave the stage until he had vacuumed up every last Cheerio used as part of the stage “stew”!
Lastly, to quote yet another of our letters, “it was an absolutely incredible show”.
see also: Memory Lane (Photos) - Annie 1995
