Adept singers carry the day for `Annie'.

Byline: Nancy Sheehan

COLUMN: THEATER REVIEW

WORCESTER - When the now classic musical "Annie" opened in 1977, its Great Depression setting made it seem more of a harmless period piece, an almost nostalgic look back at an era whose deprivations had lost their sting after decades of prosperity.

That continued for nearly 30 years, over the play's long Broadway run and countless road tours. Well, suddenly, there are slightly unsettling parallels with the economic vicissitudes of today that make the song "It's a Hard Knock Life" newly relevant and not just about something your parents or grandparents went through, seemingly at the dawn of prehistory.

Nevertheless, a great way to escape the recession for a couple hours was watching the delightful doings of the version of "Annie" that stopped at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts Friday night, yesterday afternoon and last night. It is a big production with wonderfully designed, extremely well painted sets. A striking tromp l'oeil elevated roadway that serves as a shelter for hapless hobos is an early scene indicator of visual treats to come. A Christmas Eve scene in Daddy Warbucks' mansion includes an elegant sweep of circular stairs under an expansive window-graced dome through which iridescent snow can be seen gently falling.

It is really the adept singing that carries the day, however. Our little star, Madison Kerth as Annie, handled her big job well with a voice that, although a tad nasal at times, came across with perfect pitch and all the precocious power required of the role.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. While most in the audience - including the large contingent of little girls dressed in their glittery princess best - seemed to have seen the play before (maybe even 10 times or so) here is a synopsis for the un-Annied.

The show opens in the winter of 1933, near the low point of the Depression, with 11-year-old Annie in an orphanage ruled over by Miss Hannigan, a bully who makes her miserable self feel momentarily more powerful by lording it over helpless orphans. Undaunted, the girls are ever hopeful that they will someday be adopted and live happily ever after as they sing the wistful "Maybe." At this point Friday night, a tiny scene stealer emerged in the character of the orphan Molly, played by bitsy MacKenzie Aladjem. The smallest of the little-girl orphans, she had an adorable natural presence devoid of even a hint of cloying cutesiness.

Anyway, our Little Orphan Annie doesn't want to take "Maybe" as an answer and tries to escape to find her parents, who she believes are alive out there somewhere. The coppers return her to the orphanage and it appears Miss Hannigan will exact a grueling retribution when luck intervenes. Oliver Warbucks, a man so rich and powerful he has President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, J. Edgar Hoover and even Eliot Ness at his beck and call, decides he wants to befriend an orphan home for the holidays.

Annie is selected and her life takes an infinitely more favorable turn. Although at first Warbucks is awkward expressing emotion for anything other than money, he comes to love Annie and wants to adopt her. Annie wants her own parents, though, so a brokenhearted Warbucks offers a reward that has Miss Hannigan, her no-good brother and his floozy girlfriend hatching a scheme as pretenders to parenthood.

It all works out in the end in this relentlessly upbeat musical, and if that doesn't make you happy enough, there is Annie's really cute dog, Sandy, who got ooooohs and ahhhhs every time the well-trained actor pooch appeared on stage.

Some other enjoyable points in this overall excellent production: Lynn Andrews as Miss Hannigan with her wonderfully over-the-top portrayal of frustrated evilness; a devilishly engaging rendition of "Easy Street'' with Andrews, her brother Rooster (Zander Meisner) and cheesy girlfriend (Cheryl Hoffman); fabulous ensemble pieces, especially those involving the

staff at the Warbucks mansion, the most tuneful toilers you could ever ask for.

So, yes, there are those recession/Depression reminders that seem a little disconcertingly relevant. But, then there is also that useful, timely reminder: The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar, hum, hum, dum dee dum, tomorrow ... .

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: From left, Madison Kerth, as Annie, and MacKenzie Aladjem, as Molly, play a scene in the musical "Annie."

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN