The Sun’ll Come Out…

I’m ecstatic about this week’s election results. In a million years I never expected the Democrats to regain control of the House and  the Senate. Now I just pray that they don’t get too full of themselves and screw things up too badly over the next few years. As always in the days after an election, especially one in which the dominant party was routed, we are hearing a ton of rhetoric about bipartisanship. After years of ever-increasing enmity, suddenly everyone wants to be best friends. Bush has a coffee klatch with Nancy Pelosi and makes a bad joke about Republican interior decorators. Is that what bipartisanship means these days—that Democrats as well as Republicans now have to smile wanly through Bush’s inane and vaguely inappropriate good ol’ boy humor? I wish I could believe that this handshaking across the aisle was going to last beyond Thanksgiving but I’m not very optimistic, we’ve seen this short-lived dance too many times. I know that Republicans are lying in wait eager to pounce on the first misstep just as much as the Democrats have delighted in condemning the actions of the Republican-controlled Congress all these years. Sigh.

Is true bipartisanship possible anymore? Can you cite an example in which Democrats and Republicans worked together effectively? I can think of one but I have to go back 75 years and move from the front page to the funny pages. (Is there a difference?)

Do you remember when Republican billionaire Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks worked closely with New Deal President Franklin D. Roosevelt to find the birth parents of his ward, Little Orphan Annie? In the musical version of this story, plenty of jokes are made about industrialist Warbucks’ close friendship with liberal FDR. In truth, Annie’s creator Harold Gray was an ultra-conservative who despised Roosevelt. If you look at the original comic strips from the 1930s you will find many veiled and not-so-veiled swipes at Roosevelt and his policies. Gray got a lot of criticism for it at the time but his political beliefs were never under wraps in his comics. At one point he even killed off Daddy Warbucks as a protest to what he considered the outrages of the New Deal and only brought him back to life following Roosevelt’s death in 1945.

I’m contemplating the Warbucks-Roosevelt partnership with the same immediacy as Bush-Pelosi because our house these days has become All-Annie, All-The-Time. Leah is deep in rehearsals to play the lead role in the musical “Annie” this December. She’s been in a bunch of shows with this theatre company over the years but most of the parts she’s had up until now have been men. There’s never an abundance of boys in children’s theatre and Leah frankly has more masculine energy than most of the actual boys in the company. She started her musical theatre career as Officer Krupke in “West Side Story” and then played the King in “Cinderella.” She was a tough Danny Zuko in “Grease,” a hip-swiveling Conrad in “Bye, Bye Birdie,” and a terrifying Bill Sykes in “Oliver.” 

But Annie was always the dream part. From the moment she was born with a head full of curly bright red hair, my daughter has been compared to Little Orphan Annie. I remember once when she was 4 we were walking by a group of tourists sitting at a table in Farmers Market who called out, “Hey, Annie!” at which point Leah reeled around, put her hands on her hips, and screamed at the top of her lungs, “I’M NOT ANNIE!” But she wanted to be. By six she knew the entire score to the musical and could belt out “Tomorrow” like there’s no tomorrow. I know that little girls warbling that particular song has become a shorthand cliché for the horrors of child performers but I never cringe when I hear that familiar opening—I love it!

I saw the original “Annie” at the Alvin Theatre in New York (now the Neil Simon) in early 1978. It was still one of the toughest tickets on Broadway but back then you could get Standing Room Only seats for an unbelievable five bucks a pop and you got to lean on comfortable padded cushions right behind the last row. It wasn’t bad at all and I was transfixed by the production which still included the late Dorothy Loudon as the deliciously evil little girl-hating Miss Hannigan. Andrea McArdle had just left the cast to open the show on London’s West End so the Annie I saw was ten-year-old Shelley Bruce who was one of the original orphans. Bruce was quite good although she never became as famous as the next Annie replacement, Sarah Jessica Parker. I heard that Shelley Bruce survived a bout with cancer recently and now has two kids in New Jersey.

Leah loved the movie versions of the musical including the ill-fated John Huston film that came out in 1982. This movie should have been a hell of lot better with people like Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan, Albert Finney as Oliver Warbucks, and Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters as Rooster and Lily. So what went wrong? Is it terribly unfair to blame a bad movie on a defenseless little girl? Aileen Quinn as Annie was so sugary sweet that you needed a blood transfusion after watching each number. This was Huston’s only musical and he clearly did not have a feel for it. Back to the African Queen for you, Maestro.

But Leah and I both loved the 1999 TV version directed by Rob Marshall and starring Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan and Broadway stars Victor Garber, Alan Cumming, Audra McDonald, and Kristen Chenoweth. Alicia Morton played Annie with exactly the right amount of spunk, sarcasm, and sincerity. Even the grown-up Andrea McArdle got to exercise her still amazing pipes in a cameo role.

When Leah auditioned for the musical I tried my hardest not to become Mama Rose. “Any part you get will be great, Leah,” I assured her, secretly sending stage parent vibes to the director of the show that she’d have to be out of her freaking mind not to cast Leah as Annie. Come on, think of the money they’d save on that damn wig! When Leah called me from the theatre the following week to tell me she got the part, I burst into tears. What is wrong with me? Since then we’ve been mastering our duet of Daddy Warbucks and Annie’s big song, "I Don't Need Anything But You." Hey, I have to be ready in case the 8th grade girl playing Warbucks mysteriously falls ill on opening night, don’t I?

I’m poor as a mouse
I’m richer than Midas
But nothing on earth
Could ever divide us
And if tomorrow I’m an apple seller, too
I don’t need anything but you!

Should that be the new theme song in Congress? Democrats and Republicans can sing it to each other on the Capitol Steps. It sure beats that “hard-knock life” song we've been singing for the past six years.

Leah’s show opens on December 14th and I’m probably a little too excited about it. I’ve now heard her belt “Tomorrow” a thousand times and it gets me every time. Talk about a good political theme for this year:

When I’m stuck with a day
That’s gray and lonely
I just stick out my chin
And grin and say, oh!
The sun’ll come out tomorrow
So you gotta hang on til tomorrow
Come what may!

To be honest I think the bipartisanship in “Annie” is just as forced as it is in Washington. Harold Gray would be catapulting in his grave if he could hear the lyrics to the closing song in “Annie” in which Oliver Warbucks, Gray’s personification of the conservative Republican values he held near and dear, undergoes a total political transformation and joins FDR’s New Deal with all the gusto necessary for a show-stopping finale:

WARBUCKS:
I know the Depression’s depressing

GRACE:
The carols are stilled
The stored aren’t filled

WARBUCKS:
And the windows are minus the dressing

GRACE:
The children don’t grin
The Santas are thin

GRACE AND WARBUCKS:
And I've heard a terrible rumor
No goodwill, no cheer

WARBUCKS:
But we'll get a New Deal for Christmas
This year!

ANNIE AND ORPHANS:
The snowflakes are frighting of falling
And oh, what a fix
No peppermint sticks!

WARBUCKS:
And all through the land folks are bawling

GRACE:
And filled with despair
'Cause cupboards are bare

WARBUCKS:
But Santa’s got brand new assistants
There's nothing to fear
They're bringing a New Deal for Christmas
This year.

Those happy days that we were promised

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT:
Are finally here!

ALL:
We’re getting a New Deal for Christmas
This year!

Oy. Even I’m not that optimistic about the Democrats!

Comments

[Scott]

CHENEY:
I know the war's depressing

SNOW:
The dead are unburied
The stores are unharried

CHENEY:
And the windows are minus the glass

SNOW:
The children are thin
These damn Sunnis won't grin

CHENEY AND SNOW:
And I've heard some terrible quotes
No fear, no money, no votes!

CHENEY:
But we'll get a New War for Christmas this year!

JENNA AND BARBARA:
The Daisy Cutters are frighting of falling
And oh, what a fix
No target sticks!

CHENEY:
And all through the land the folks are crawling

SNOW:
And filled with despair
'Cause cupboards are bare

CHENEY:
But the CIA has got brand new villians
There's nothing to fear!
They're bringing a New War for Christmas
This year!

The nukes that Amenijihad promised...

PRESIDENT BUSH
Are finally here!

ALL:
We're getting a New War for Christmas
This year!

[JanePoe (aka Deborah)]

After that first comment, I'm quite intimidated!! All I can say is, brilliant post Danny (and good history lesson) ...many good thoughts to Leah in her upcoming production next month! I'm sure you're quite proud. cheers, JP

[Footpad]

Oh my. You've not only restated everything I want to say about the recent Democratic victory, but you've done in a way that let's me be nostalgic and remember my experience seeing "Annie" here in Seattle in 1982.

(Not to mention getting me wondering what it would be like to see my 10YO practicing that part).

Well done!

-- f

[Roberta]

I don't have much to say on the election stuff, except that, as exciting as it is, I simply never get that excited anymore... they've all found ways to disappoint.
But Annie I can talk about. Andrea McArdle is a year and a half older than me, and I grew up in north New Jersey, twenty minutes from Manhattan. AND I was a singing/actress-y girl. Although I never saw the show on Broadway, I knew all the music. I didn't even have the album; my friends would just sing it to each other. We were such musical geeks; so unencumbered by that geekiness. But the point is, I was always aware of the Annies. Shelley Bruce was from right nearby; Sarah Jessica Parker is my exact age (I've been aware of her ever since). Annie was just something I've always identified with, weirdly, as a peer. It is amazing to read of someone else who is so completely on top of this show's history!
I wish I could come see your daughter in this. She must have a lot of talent... Danny Zuko, Conrad, and Bill Sykes???
(And the big screen version is a train wreck, but, like the proverbial train wreck, you can't take your eyes off it. Easy Street is like Rocky Horror redeux.)

[OldOldLady Of The Hills]

Wonderful post Danny...I wish I could see Leah in this production..But, alas..you know the way things are it is not possible...but I bet she is going to be great, great, great!

[Mindy]

I remember seeing Andrea McArdle in a tv production as a young Judy Garland. I can still hear her belt out "Poor Johnny One Note". Wow!

[Heather]

I am so envious of Leah's opportunity to star as Annie. I wish that my trip to Los Angeles would coincide with her performance! (It's not until February, sadly.) I got the Original Broadway Cast Recording for Christmas when I was 7. I went on to win second prize for singing "Tomorrow" in my school's talent show that year (a performance which I reprised in the middle of my relatives' dining room table on Easter). However, I was never brave enough or talented enough to try out for actual theater.

Also, the outcome of the elections is like an amazing dream from which I never want to wake up. Hurray! Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow of the past 6 years.

[david]

How do you do that?! How do you go from the front pages to the comic strips to your kid, to your memories, back to the front pages, and make it make sense?!

Damn you.

[Roberta]

Mindy... and Zing Went the Strings.

[Elaine Soloway]

I know the traditional show biz wish is: "Break a leg," but there's no way this Jewish mother can offer it to your daughter without imagining a cast and an ER visit. Quick, Danny, think of something more appropriate that I can send Leah before the curtains part.
Love,
Elaine

[Dana]

Sure hope we're getting a meaninful New Deal; not sure now that the economy is so global. Congratulations! I wish you all a great time with "Annie"! Last winter my 13-yr. old son was devastated not to get Warbucks. There was method in the director's madness: kid has been acting since age 5, he is a superb dancer and singer (lessons make us poor), a really big boy for his age, and has great comic timing. The director had no competent boy dancers and wanted a boy big enough to pick up Annie and swing her around in several scenes. He also needed a policeman who was imposing and could do a good accent, so instead my kid was cast as Drake, Lt. Ward, AND a dancer in ensemble scenes. The day before opening night (opening night was his birthday), clever kid allegedly pulled a computer prank at school and immediately got suspended for a few days while the "infraction" was being investigated. Those days corresponded to show dates! Not allowed to come to school during those dsys, he therefore couldn't perform after four months of dedicated rehearsing! So who was tapped for the parts at the last minute? The school principal who suspended him played a boring, non-dancing Drake, wearing the very tux pants, tux shirt, and tail coat I had paintstakenly found for my son! And the policeman was the school's own actual security guard, wearing my kid's genuine police coat and pants which I had bought on eBay! Talk about political irony and personal heartache. Though my son was banned from setting foot on campus, his girlfriend, brother and I went to the show anyway just to show support. (Besides, I had volunteered countless hours, too.) The unrehearsed Drake and Lt. Ward SUCKED (just a little schadenfreude on my part), and kid was exonerated for the crime, but much too late. Certainly a hard way for a kid to learn a lesson, but sometimes that's what they need.

[Rebekah]

Hey, I love the 1982 version of Annie! One of my favorite movies. Carol Burnett, in my opinion, played the BEST Miss Hannigan and no one can replace Tim Curry as Rooster in my heart. But I agree that Aileen Quinn's Annie was far too sugary-sweet and made me sick at times.
I'll have to take the opportunity sometime to compare it to the 1999 film, tho it will be hard for me to watch other actors take the place of the originals.