Annie Live! serves up TV musical perfection
Christmas comes early as NBC delivers one of its best ever live musicals
TV Reviews Annie
It’s a funny quirk of theater that Annie Live! was actually the least nervous I’ve ever felt sitting down to watch one of these live musicals. If there’s one group of people I trust to deliver consistency, it’s kids trained in musical theater. So even though this particular production opened with a bizarre Brechtian acknowledgement of the fourth wall by way of what felt like a Gap Kids ad, and then forced young star Celina Smith to go through the stress of a quick change on national television (talk about a “moment before”), nothing could throw this young cast off its game. Less than 10 minutes in, elementary schoolers were already doing butterfly flips across the stage while singing in perfect harmony. It’s hard to think of a better way to say “theater is back, baby!” than a pre-teen belting her face off while walking a live dog around the stage. The audience couldn’t stop themselves from applauding mid-song and neither could I.
In retrospect, I can’t believe we got A Christmas Story Live! and The Grinch Live! before someone thought to stage a production of Annie. Not only is it a beloved musical, it’s also a genuinely good show too. Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin’s score is full of bangers, not just in the show’s best-known numbers, but also in catchy songs like “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” “Easy Street,” and “N.Y.C.” Between the popularity of the original cast album, the 1982 movie with Carol Burnett, the 1999 Wonderful World Of Disney version with Victor Garber and Kathy Bates, and the 2014 movie with Quvenzhané Wallis and Jamie Foxx, it’s a show that’s got buy-in from multiple generations. Plus it’s literally set at Christmas! Leaping lizards, what else could you want?
Best of all, NBC finally listened to the plea I’ve put in basically every review since these live musicals started: They filmed the show in front of a live audience and let the crowd actually laugh at the jokes, rather than just cheer like they were at a rock concert. I don’t know why it took eight full years for someone to think of treating theater like theater, but at least NBC made up for it by bringing in an audience knowledgeable enough to make sure Megan Hilty got her own entrance applause in addition to Tituss Burgess’ ecstatic reception after the duo arrived onstage together as Rooster and Lily St. Regis, respectively. That’s exactly how two Broadway legends should be treated.
Annie Live! threw down the gauntlet early by squeezing in “Maybe,” “It’s The Hard Knock Life,” and “Tomorrow” all before the first commercial break. And the show kept up that momentum for its full three-hour runtime. Even the flaws— Harry Connick Jr.’s horrifyingly fleshy Daddy Warbucks bald cap, a few crew members popping up in shots here and there—just added to the fun of the whole thing. These live musicals should be a touch ridiculous, otherwise what would we tweet about? Annie Live! reminded us that girls can be orphans, billionaires can be good, and Nicole Scherzinger can fan kick while scatting. So while, sure, maybe Smith’s unexpectedly raw, naturalistic take on Annie doesn’t necessarily make sense in the same show where Taraji P. Henson is going full twitchy pantomime villain as Miss Hannigan, it doesn’t really matter when both performances are wonderful in a cast without a weak link.
Annie Live! also hugely benefited from director Lear deBessonet’s simple, pared back staging. While some of these live musicals have gone big with multiple sound stages or concert-style productions, Annie Live! mostly unfolded like an actual stage show. Jason Sherwood’s elegantly simple set put the emphasis on the performers—especially the dancers, who stole the show in the big ensemble numbers. (You can feel how hungry these performers have been to put on a show after the pandemic put a kibosh on live theater for so long, and Sergio Trujillo’s choreography served them incredibly well.) And while Alex Rudzinski’s camera direction wasn’t always the best at complementing deBessonet’s stage pictures, that’s a fairly minor critique. On the plus side, other than a few late microphone moments, Annie Live! was basically the first of these live musicals to finally get the sound mixing right, which is a huge win in my book.
It also helps that Annie just feels like a nice thematic fit for our current moment. There’s something poignant about its lighthearted look at the power of optimism in the face of the Great Depression. (Hope you enjoyed that Herbert Hoover history lesson, kids!) Plus its celebration of found family is lovely too. Though this is definitely a fun-first show, I actually found myself surprisingly moved by Connick Jr.’s mournful reprise of “Maybe” when Daddy Warbucks thinks he’s going to have to say goodbye to little orphan Annie. And by the time Annie and Warbucks expressed their love for one another after she finds out her biological parents died years ago, I was full-on tearing up.
Annie Live! does what these live musicals should have been doing from the start: Pick strong source material, cast it well, and embrace the unique format of live theater, rather than try to turn it into something else. Perfectly paced and anchored by Smith’s star-making breakthrough performance, Annie Live! proved to be a lovely way to spend a Thursday night amidst the busy rush of the holiday season and the general scariness of the world right now. While so many of the previous live musicals have felt like fleeting ephemera I’ll never rewatch again, Annie Live! is one I might actually be tempted to revisit tomorrow.
Stray observations
- Yes, I did clap for Annie’s big entrance in her iconic red dress, and I hope you did too.
- Nicole Scherzinger walks an unparalleled line between giving an earnestly great musical theater performance and a ridiculous camp musical theater performance, and that is her power.
- Some of the camera work was pretty scattershot tonight, but I did love that Steadicam shot down the steps in “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here.”
- I also loved the fantastically colorful period styles from costumer designer Emilio Sosa, although I’m a little baffled by the choice to bookend the show with kids in modern dress.
- I truly can’t overemphasis what a difference it made to have a live audience laughing and responding to the show itself! It was especially sweet when the crowd broke into applause for Warbuck’s line, “I’m glad to see Broadway getting back on its feet in spite of the hard times.”
- I’d take a New Deal for Christmas! Or a kind billionaire who wants to adopt me.
75 Comments
I’m not sure what happened to the broadcast between the live version on the east coast and the one we got here in the west, but by the time it arrived, all the pacing, humor, and talent got sucked out of it. (Excepting Hilty and Burgess, who actually know how to do musical comedy.) Time after time, these broadcasts go in for stunt casting (Carrie Underwood, Connick, Henson, Christopher Walken, Allison Williams), rather than relying on people who do this for a living and know how to put the material across. When they do use those people (Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti, Harvey Fierstein, Martin Short), they blow the phonies off the screen.
From Connick’s not knowing his lines and enervated performance to Henson doing the impossible and overplaying Hannigan, there was almost nothing right about this production. There was virtually no one who understood the style, the jokes, or the characters (how do you screw up an FDR imitation?). The choreography was abysmal, with numbers and tap breaks were forced into the score at gunpoint, lighting was terrible, and the direction (particularly in “Herbert Hoover,” with its misconceived Brechtian rage at the audience that was in complete conflict with the music and lyrics) was embarrassingly misconceived.
I was reminded of nothing so much as Sidney Lumet’s film version of Chekhov’s “The Sea Gull,” which time after time seemed to ask “What’s the right thing to do here? Let’s do the opposite.”I love musicals, and have done so for decades. Shows like this tell me why some people hate them.
In fairness to Harry Connick, Jr, he has a fair amount of stage experience. I saw him in The Pajama Game on Broadway and he was very good. He also did an okay version of On Clear Day…(the okay part wasn’t his fault). I don’t think he’s a natural fit for this role, to be honest, and I do think there were some nerves. But he isn’t inexperienced either. Taraji P. Henson also has stage experience, though largely West Coast and straight plays. I think to call either Henson or Connick “phonies” is a bit unfair when both are well-established actors and performers. Henson could have reigned it in a little, but that’s down to the director – Her vocals were excellent.
Don’t forget Connick Jr. wrote the score for, and starred in, the hysterical flop (yep, I was there) New Orleans version of Therese Raquin, with some, err, memorable choreographed sex scenes.
I think the issue is Harry is best when he’s playing a version of himself on stage—like he did in Pajama Game. Daddy Warbucks isn’t that role.
Agreed (and Thou Shalt Not is a trip). I don’t necessarily think he was well-cast, but I also don’t know that I would call it stunt casting. I don’t think anyone was really thinking Harry Connick Jr. would be a ratings boon.
Yeah, I think his casting squarely falls into the category of a known name who also has musical theatre chops, and so the thought behind it makes sense to me.
He wasn’t horrible but I think Connick was the wrong choice to play Warbucks. He’s too laidback.
Yeah, Warbucks is supposed to be a big grumpy teddy bear, not a bald Frank Sinatra. BUT he pulled it off admirably.
I agree it always seems to get lost coming over to the left coast and that initial camera work was terrible, it was spotty throughout plus the audience had blocked views, not good… Connick isn’t a phony, he has been onstage and has enough live performance talent for honest inclusion. Everyone overplays Hannigan, I think as a throwback to the style back in the day. I’ve seen enough theater, as I assume you have as well, so you know LIVE means you will have occasional jitters and flubs, even by the best, I can’t fault anyone here. Do you get the feeling this is more for the “Let’s watch a musical!!” crowd looking for a change of TV pace? I still love musicals and maybe a production such as this will expose some to the possibilities—perhaps to get out and see something truly LIVE?
those shots of bald Harry Connick Jr will haunt my nightmares for years.
Lex Luthor adopted a black kid!
He needs the PR
🤣
That picture in the middle of the review is cracking me up. He looks like he’s about to eat someone.
Italian or Greek?
Gotta say HARD nope. Jesus Christ Superstar with Alice Cooper for the win.
Sounds like my nightmare all right.
As a longtime Annie watcher since childhood, my only regret of this was Celine Smith’s vocal technique. Just overly loud and vibrato-less…but at least it wasn’t autotuned. And the earpiece draped over Connick’s head throughout was a huge distraction. Was surprised they installed the two songs cut from the original stage show that were clunkily added to the 1982 movie—Sign and We Got Annie. They were much improved here.
Without commercials, I don’t know how long the whole thing ran, but I’m guessing they put those in to help fill up the 3 hour slot.At least they didn’t feel compelled to use “Let’s Go to the Movies.”
To answer the sort-of-rhetorical question, the Peacock timeline shows it at 2:06 (presumably not counting the commercials, which were actually quite minimal on the Peacock mid-tier).
Sign has been included in some theatrical productions before now – partly to give Miss Hannigan and Daddy Warbucks something to sing together. I’m sure part of the choice here was to give Taraji P. Henson another moment to shin. Similarly, We Got Annie was an excuse to let Nicole Scherzinger dance (just like it was added to the movie to let Ann Reinking do the same).
I grew up with the movie—so loved it before I knew any better (and the first version I saw at 6, and then on our video copy for a while after, actually was edited for TV so I had no idea about some of the other new songs added like Dumb Dog)—but I’ve always liked both We Got Annie and especially Sign, so I was fine with that. And actually fine with the couple of minor songs I think were cut from the stage show (mea culpa, but my cast recording CD is still in a packing box). I honestly never expected them to do Herbert Hoover.
I thought I knew my Broadway history but I was pretty sure those songs were NOT cut from the stage show and re-added to the movie, but written for the movie. (Side note, I have a soft spot for the reviled Welcome to the Movies as well, though as a kid it always confused me that a repeated lyric is “Only happy endings/That’s a guarantee” and they are taking poor Annie to see *CAMILLE*! Happy ending, ha!)
My main problem was, while I liked that they treated the sound stage more like a stage set than they have in the past, I was NOT a fan of the design, especially its use of colour. Oh well.
We’ve Got Annie was written for Anne Reinking, so she could dance.My problem with the movie score is how many good songs were cut—nearly including Tomorrow, which is the most iconic song from the score! (I mean, I’m kind of tired of it too but you can’t cut Tomorrow! You can’t do that to that little kid, it’s her big moment. But the movie only included the reprise at the White House. I read somewhere that Attenborough didn’t like the song. Then maybe don’t direct Annie!) But they also cut Herbert Hoover, You Won’t Be An Orphan for Long, NYC and New Deal for Christmas, all terrific songs.
Glad they cut FDR’s chant to rally his political cronies like they were reindeer.
John Ford directed Annie but it was as odd a choice as when Attenborough directed A Chorus Line 😉 But I agree with you on the cuts (I guess Welcome to the Movies was meant to be more cinematic and the equivalent of NYC)
Whoops! Guess I mixed up my bad ‘80s adaptations of good musicals there. (I will say, the movie of Annie is very well cast.)
John Huston was the director, and I only remember that because I watched the hell out of Siskel & Ebert in the 80’s & 90’s. Huston was getting up there in age and it seemed like a weird fit for him to do “Annie.” I do like the movie’s bridge action scene, Rooster going homicidal, and Ms Hannigan’s redemption. Huston’s top pics up until then were Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Moby Dick some 30+ years prior. Kinda hard drama, noir & suspense. Side note: Attenburough was a strange choice to direct A Chorus Line – especially after Gandhi. (He might have had another movie between the two, but after Gandhi he probably had his pick of whatever he wanted to do for the next several projects.) I never got the hate for A Chorus Line: the movie. I was never able to see it live, so the movie was my first introduction to it. I thought it was great. Poignant. The Michael Douglas character wrote the show for his ex-girlfriend … who tries out for the show … not knowing it’s sorta based on her! Mind blown!
Yeah see that’s all made up for the ACL movie (as is repurposing What I Did For Love to be about their relationship–not about what these dancers sacrifice for the love of dance) and there’s the problem with the movie of ACL from the start. Other things too–like the rather non Broadway style new choreography by the Flashdance guy. Focusing on Michael Douglas’ character so much. Cutting one of the best numbers and replacing it with a disco song about having sex. Etc. etc. 😛
I heard all that. I saw the movie on an airplane for a school sponsored trip. Siskel and Ebert gave the movie thumbs down. I hadn’t heard any of the music before except for “One.” (I think it actually got radio play – a bit – wa-ay back in the day when Broadway tunes tried to break into the top 40. I remember hearing “Music of the Night” on the radio… like Top 40 radio, not NPR… and “Memory” a couple years before that.) So, the other 80% of the movie worked for me. “At the Ballet” etc. The disco song did suck though.
What I Did For Love was *the* big hit from the stage show—I’ve come across people saying that in 1976 or so it was impossible to get away from (but more so if you went to supper clubs and other now pretty archaic spots where they’d have a pianist singing). Off the top of my head, the big breakthrough hits from musicals in the 1970s were Godspell’s Day By Day, What I Did For Love, Tomorrow and Send in the Clowns (Grace Jones even did a bizarre disco medley of the last three, though squarely targeting gay discos). Oh and Don’t Cry For Me Argentina! And yeah in the 80s Andrew Lloyd Webber had a few cross over hits (especially in the UK) but it was pretty unheard of for showtunes to cross over post 1960s.
One wasn’t the hit that What I Did for Love was but by the 1980s it had already been repurposed for tv commercial jingles (which is how I first heard it), etc, so I’m sure it would be familiar (and it was also *written* to sound familiar—like the title song from Hello Dolly, etc).
One thing that would always harm a film of A Chorus Line is just how theatrical it is—the fact that it all takes place on the actual stage you’re watching—no intermission, etc, etc. And Michael Bennett’s staging (including the first use of computer controlled lights), which is endlessly recreated for revivals, really is masterful and again impossible to replicate on film. But trying to make it more narratively, well,normal (emphasizing the love story, etc) seems to me a big mistake.
LOL, I think I sang all those songs in Chorus class in the 80’s
I would not be remotely surprised 😉
It was John Houston who directed Annie… Ford was dead by this time I think….
HA thanks for that–typical of me to correct someone and get the name wrong (especially since I had just been talking to a friend about Huston’s fascinating failure Feud, where he terrorized Monty Clift while filming.)
Herbert Hoover and A New Deal for Christmas! are not my faves so when they did Hoover, I was also surprised. I enjoy Sign and in context, I liked We Got Annie. I was pleasantly surprised by Nicole Scherzinger in general. I know she has some solid past credits (and I believe an Olivier), but I was still not sure how she’d translate here.I was disappointed in the clunky filming and I don’t think the sets did a ton of favors there.
I read Martin Charnin’s book “behind the scenes” and I do remember “We Got Annie” was cut…i am not sure about the others.
I’m pretty sure Sign was written specifically for Carol and so that she and Finney would have a duet.
I’ve never been able to take my eyes off of Taraji P. Hensen no matter what she’s in. Yes she’s gorgeous, but she’s just got “that screen magnetism” that not every actor has, at least for me.
For a second I thought that earpiece was his bald cap coming loose
She’s pretty young to have vibrato–that usually comes with adolescence.
I always thought of Annie as a role that is meant to be pure belt *without* vibrato. *confused*
I think McArdle had a little bit of vibrato but she was 13 and a half when she started playing the role. She was already too old to play Annie (this is not a dig on her, she’s obviously iconic and of course got a Tony nomination for Best Actress). But yes, most singers Annie’s age will not have any vibrato.
Andrea McArdle, the first, did.
Kid vocalists, both naturally-gifted and trained, can acheive a nice tonal vibrato. I have seen all the other movies and a performance in Chicago in 1980…this was the least impressive vocals of Annie for my ears. Not to trample Celina down—she did a fine job and will have a future in Broadwsy if she continues it.
She’s the kind of singer who gets away with yelling because it sounds okay but there wasn’t much technique happening. I was struck by how ill-timed her breaths were. “Maybe” is an easy song for someone who wants to be a professional singer and she couldn’t make it through a single complete line without breaking for a breath. Which is a sign that she’s not projecting properly, and also why she had no vibrato. A vibrato comes naturally with proper breath and projection.
This version used noticeably slower tempos for “Maybe” and “Tomorrow” than is usual so that might have something to do with Celina’s extra breaths. Also, Celina sounds significantly better on the album with MUCH better breath control and technique than on the broadcast. She also has a touch of vibrato on the album. It seems like Celina wasn’t at her best that night, unfortunately. It almost sounds like a different person on the album.
This version used noticibly slower tempos for “Maybe” and “Tomorrow” than is usual so that might have something to do with Celina’s extra breaths. Also, Celina sounds significantly better on the album with MUCH better breath control and technique than on the broadcast. She also has a touch of vibrato on the album. It seems like Celina wasn’t at her best that night, unfortunately. It almost sounds like a different person on the album.
Agent 47?
20 years ago Harry did a great album of songs from Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Annie, and a couple of others. His version of Maybe is a highlight. Looking forward to seeing this later this weekend once it makes it onto Hulu.
NBC… it’ll probably be on Peacock
Decider says it will be on Hulu sometime today. Some of NBC’s specials and things like that still make it to there despite them having their own streaming platform now. If not, I guess I’ll watch it later during the couple of months a year I use Peacock.
It’s available on Peacock right now
I love that album. I skipped watching this special because I couldn’t look at him with a bald head, but may check it out based on some of the reviews.
It was pretty well done! I did notice a few awkward camera angles here and there but I guess that’s live theater on tv for ya. And I love Taraji but I wanted her to be a smidge more menacing. But man, those kids can sing.
This is the first of these live musicals I’ve actually watched all the way through. I hope that little girl goes onto big things; she was great.
I wonder if proximity to the 2014 Jamie Foxx movie kept the show for being considered for one of these live on stage events. It certainly seems like it would have been an obvious choice early on.
This was cute, although I don’t understand all the closeups during huge ensemble numbers. Harry Connick, Jr., is certainly a lovely singer but he forgot to play a character arc at all.
It was very well done…too bad the show itself is painfully bad.
That’s subjective, but I’d argue that objectively, as everyone from Sondheim to Mike Nichols has pointed out (of course Nichols produced it lol), it’s not “bad”, it’s incredibly well constructed.
A well constructed pile of saccharine, sure.
Saccharine ≠ bad.
That’s totally fair. But so, I wouldn’t call it “bad” the way I would some really poor musicals that are still all saccharine. I’ll give the edge to Oliver! personally (which, granted, if done right isn’t all that saccharine), but as far as “cute kids” musicals go, Annie is at the top of the class.
Cute Kid Musical Rankings:1) Matilda2) Oliver3) Annie
Never got the Matilda love–I suppose I adhere too much to Sondheim’s principals about never using false or slant rhyming in theatre.
Annie purists be like…
LOL!
New feelings about Annie’s red dress.
Having worked in a camera department for the last several months, the notion of someone using steadicam on live television is the most nerve-racking thing to see or consider.
I loved it! The kid was great (fantastic little actor!), the orphans were terrific in the tradition of theater moppets working their tushes off and I loved the choreography. I was so glad they didn’t seem to cut any of the numbers from the original score (unlike the ‘82 movie which butchered the score).Not only is it a beloved musical, it’s also a genuinely good show too. Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin’s score is full of bangers, not just in the show’s best-known numbers, but also in catchy songs like “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here,” “Easy Street,” and “N.Y.C.”YES. Jaded musical theater performers like to trash Annie probably because it’s so sentimental but it is a very well constructed show and score.
I’m glad Taraji P. Henson didn’t derail it, her promos for it were so hammy I felt a little nauseated. I am still interested in our continued love of Daddy WAR BUCKS
In the comic strip Daddy Warbucks is a WWI profiteer who made millions selling munitions then has a crisis of conscience about it later. Yeah, the name is literal, and he’s kind of an interesting character though the politics of Little Orphan Annie in general are kind of suspect.
It was hard to watch. FDR wasn’t convincing unless you considered the wheelchair. Harry Connick Jr seemed to have a constant smirk like he wasn’t taking the performance seriously. I didn’t think NBC could do worse than their hatchet job of RENT, but they managed to. I might watch Jesus Christ Superstar again just to cleanse the Annie experience.
Tituss Burgess!? Harry Connick Jr!? Taraji P. Henson!?Damn! Sorry I missed this. Are they going to run it again?
I think the extra girls in street clothes were the off-camera singers augmenting “Hard Knock Life” etc. so the dozen on-camera orphans could could dance and do flips and not have to worry about holding pitch or being mic’d. Not saying the orphans were lip-syncing per se, they just had vocal help. Still live, of course. The opening and closing appearance of the girls chorus worked both as an acknowledgement of their contribution and as a thematic “girl-power” statement that was, I thought, pretty rad.
Casting a black in the redhead role…so racist.
I’ve always liked Annie because the comic strip is one of those great old time strips that wore its politics, if you knew where to look. I don’t necessarily agree with those politics, but it was a core part of the strip. Daddy Warbucks “died” (long coma, mistaken for dead) when FDR was elected to his 4th term and miraculously recovered when FDR died. Lots of strips were like that back in the day- Pogo, Lil’ Abner, etc. Heck Abner strip’s politics went from strong new-dealer to conservative republican as Al Capp’s politics changed and he became a strong Nixonite (and noted sexual harasser).All of that being said, I’m not sure I can ever un-see Connick Jr with that bald head.The next NBC live musical should be an original work based on Gasoline Alley or Brenda Starr
A Gasoline Alley musical would have to be ten hours long with the last four hours being the same couple of songs over and over and over again, just to capture the thrust of the strip. But my god would Brenda Starr, Reporter make a great adaptation into any and all media.