I was lucky enough to be accompanied to see Annie by 11-year-old Ella and her seven-year-old sister, Imogen. Both girls attend dance and musical theatre classes and enjoy performing on stage themselves. 

We were thrilled to be attending one of our all-time favourite musicals. Ella and Imogen eagerly agreed to share their views, to be included in this review.

Annie is a heartwarming musical about a determined and stoically optimistic 11-year-old girl who lives in the municipal girls orphanage in New York during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unlike most of the other orphans, Annie believes her parents are still alive and will return to reclaim her. 

The story was originally based on a 1924 comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, by Harold Gray. The Broadway production opened in 1977 before premiering in the West End in 1978. It won seven Tony Awards, including best musical.

Annie and her fellow orphans have a pretty miserable existence, a fact which they convey brilliantly in singing It’s The Hard Knock Life at the beginning of the show. 

The tyrannical and wickedly unpleasant orphanage matron, Miss Hannigan, hates children and manages her misery by liberally self-medicating with alcohol. She is here wonderfully portrayed by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood. 

Ella was impressed by how convincingly Craig embodied the character. As one would expect, his choreography was executed with absolute precision! He also had a surprisingly fine singing voice and a fabulous feminine flair. Ella, Imogen and I all agreed that his performance in Easy Street was one of our favourite takeaways from the whole show.

Annie’s life changes when she is chosen by Grace, the charming secretary of legendary billionaire Oliver Warbucks, to spend Christmas at the Warbucks mansion. Annie quickly wins Mr Warbucks’ heart and he offers to adopt her. 

There was a slight technical hitch in last night’s performance, requiring the interval to be brought forward. The show was also missing the scene in which Annie explains that she doesn’t believe she’s an orphan and asks Mr Warbucks to help her find her real parents. 

Mr Warbucks offers a huge reward to anybody who can prove they are Annie’s mother & father. But his offer attracts the attention of many unscrupulous individuals. These include Miss Hannigan, her no-good convict brother, Rooster, and his girlfriend, Lily. Between them, the trio hatch a plan to kidnap Annie and keep the reward money for themselves...

Ella, Imogen and I thought the biggest stars of the show were Annie and all the other orphans. They were adorable, amazingly talented, and carried off their big songs and dance routines with great passion and energy. We loved the iconic hits, such as Maybe, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile and I Don’t Need Anything Else But You, to name but a few. Imogen found it very difficult not to join in with the songs she knows so well! At the end, she stood cheering the cast members and sang along to Tomorrow with an enthusiasm that absolutely matched that of the professional performers on stage!

After the finale, Craig Revel Horwood paid a touching tribute to the late Paul O’Grady - who also played Miss Hannigan in this touring production and who died last week - and dedicated all of this week’s Alexandra performances to him.

Both Ella and Imogen said they had fun watching the show and would definitely recommend it to their friends. They thought it was an ideal family production that grown-ups such as grandparents would enjoy taking younger family members to see. Ella’s three words to describe the show were: ‘entertaining’, ‘energetic’ and ‘exciting’!

Four stars

Reveiwed at The Alexandra, Birmingham, Tuesday 4 April, by Sue Hull and Ella & Imogen Cerrone, where the show runs until Saturday 15 April, then at the following venues: Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, Monday 8 - Saturday 13 May; Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Tuesday 10 - Saturday 14 October.