WPCNR STAGE DOOR. Review by John F. Bailey. December 15, 2005 UPDATED with ShowPix: America’s Favorite Family Musical opened this morning at The Rochambeau School in White Plains, playing for this weekend only.
Westco’s production features perhaps the most distinguished canine actor since Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin, Buster the Broadway Dog as Sandy.
This Annie brings us a new Annie, introducing the endearing, lovable Kelsey Berro, a precocious feisty little belter of a diminutive songstress with a commedienne’s timing far beyond her years, who steals the show without upstaging.
Kelsey Berro as Annie Inspires FDR (Bill Curry) and Daddy Warbucks (John Anderson) at the White House with “Tommorrow”. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
She’s complimented by her foil, John Anderson as the soft-shoed lovable billionaire with a heart Daddy Warbucks, and the bespectacled “presidential” Bill Corry (a member of the cast of the original production of Inherit The Wind) who brings Franklin Delano Roosevelt back to life just when the country needs him most.
Kelsey and John as Annie and Daddy Warbucks softshoe on I Don’t Need Anything But You. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
Annie charmed the audience of over 350 persons this morning at the “Old Roch,” bringing laughs from child and adult alike. She will charm child, parent and all in a revival that turns Rochambeau Auditorium, for 2 hours and 40 minutes into the stuff Broadway is made of.
There’s the complex set ingeniously worked around the severe limitations of the Roch’s small stage. Set designer Eric Zoback used creative imagination evoking the grandeur of New York City with elegant tall buildings that actually make this narrow short stage look bigger. Zoback shows us the Hooverville of the thirties, and the spaciousness of Daddy Warbucks mansion.
Live, crisp music under the direction of Cindy Moore sprightly segues scene changes and lays a bed for the tunes without overpowering the cast who are impeccably miked with no glitches as they bring back the tunes of Annie we love: Tomorrow (I love ya Tomorrow), It’s the Hard-knock-life, Easy Street, and You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile, as this masterful book and libretto is brought back by a cast that works seamlessly.
Kelsey Berro and Buster the Dog as Sandy. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
I start with the “backup” first, because the professional ensemble featuring Kelsey Berro in her Westco debut in the star role delivers Annie with the just the right spunk, style and believability, belting out the kid-showstoppers, not overplaying, and not swallowing punchlines. A star is born right here, and you saw her first, Mr. and Mrs. White Plains.
Nancy Jane Blake as the conniving villainess, Miss Hannigan, recreates the Carol Burnett role here with a meanness that is funny, without being evil, and she and Stephen Sporer as Rooster Hannigan and Kaitlyn St. Pierre as Lily St. Regis, the conspirators who impersonate Annie’s parents conspire with compatibility and congeniality in the delightfully nasty boogie, Easy Street. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
Stephen Sporer as Rooster, Ms. Blake as Ms. Hannigan and Kaitlyn St. Pierre as Lily, singing Easy Street. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
The acting ensemble assembled romps and interchanges roles without flaw, switching from hobos in Hooverville (where they introduce the children of the audience to The Depression with their spirited, We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover) to White House staff (where Marc Wager does a great comic turn as a diplomat attempting to sing Tomorrow), to changing into Daddy Warbucks servants with ease. Michael Pasieka, Cynthia Topps, Marc Wager, Steven Sasso, B.J. Marcus Brenda Mileo, and if I’ve left any one out – they acted like they’d been doing this show for years.
Those Irrepressible Orphans: Micaela Jen Silver, Barrie Tovar, Georgina Simon, Sophia Carpinello, Katie Ring, Sarah Beth Ackerman, Kristina Koller, Lindsey Pasieka, Olivia Rand, Kaylan Gersten, Danielle Winchester, Kalina Lyn Teller. Photo, WPCNR StageCAM
The cast delivers entertaining choreography conceived by Director Jason Summers – choreography that by using all the stage, makes the use of the small stage – making it seem bigger. And they use all of it. When the diminutive orphans, playing Annie’s comrades at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage, perform their mop number, It’s the Hard-Knock Life, they nearly tumble to the edge of the stage, watch out in the front row!
Kelsey Berro’s Annie steals the evening with all of her solos from her first big solo on St. Mark’s Place of Tomorrow to her reprise of Tomorrow before Franklin Delenao Roosevelt and his cabinet, inspiring FDR to create “The New Deal.” I have to commend Bill Curry for his presidential performance. He uses an original FDR wheelchair donated for use by a member of the company, that FDR actually sat in.
Bill Curry in an original “FDR” wheelchair, getting into character. Backstage Photo, WPCNR StageCAM
Few Americans today realize, that FDR was the first disabled American President, and he did a pretty good job! It’s this reviewer’s opinion that the spirit of “That Man” was in Mr. Corry as he performed. His manner and decorum was presidential, entertaining, and compassionate. (But then, this is a musical.) Mr. Corry’s utter believability as FDR sold the preposterous premise of the scene so you really believe it.
The Ensemble performing NYC in “Times Square”. Photo, WPCNR StageCam
Ms. Berro’s foil, John Anderson, as Daddy Warbucks cuts a mean stage with his two stepwith his spunky co-star on I Don’t Need Anything But You. His tenor delivered the Daddy Warbucks signature songs with pathos and sensitivity on Something Was Missing and his duet with Annie on I Don’t Need Anything But You. These are such gosh darn happy songs that it puts even a nasty old reporter dog into the holiday spirit. Mixing a little Kelsey Grammar with George Clooney and a trademark Daddy Warbucks dome, Mr. Anderson is the Warbucks of legend. He could be a tad more brusque in the part, but that is a minor quibble. He and Ms. Berro’s chemistry grows during the show.
The Boylan Sisters Performing with Bert Healey on The Oxydent Hour of Smiles. A sendup of 1930s radio. Photo,WPCNR StageCam
Katherine Brooks as Warbucks Secretary, Grace Farrell, is appropriately Fifth Avenue as a Girl Friday – who solves the mystery of Annie’s parents by her suspicions. Her sense of timing, expressions and body language deliver a lot of the messages in this show so the younger audiences can understand. Brooks is very attractive, classy, and virtuous a model of reason and repressed emotion.
Buster the Broadway Dog – the Spencer Tracy of canine actors – trained by Bill Berloni, of William Berloni Theatrical Animals, Inc., will steal your heart. Buster, recently interviewed on White Plains Week, has one incredible moment on the stage. At the close of the First Act, When Annie is taken back to the orphanage, the scene closes and on a dark desolate stage, Buster enters stage left alone, nose in the air. He walks slowly to center stage, and then ambles off the stage, unattended looking for Annie. He gets it absolutely right and the scene will delight the youngsters.
Buster the Broadway Dog, a show business icon who has played Sandy for ten years, relaxes prior to showtime in his private dressing room with trainer, Bill Berloni. Buster is the only actor in the show with his own private dressing room. Photo, WPCNR StageCAM
Annie has returned, and has been paid her homage by the Westco team. There are performances Friday morning at 10:30, Friday evening at 7:30, and Saturday evening at 7:30. Saturday Matinee is sold out. For information, call 914-761-7463.
