Annie: Leapin’ lizards! Hit musical returns to Louisville

Audience favorite and Tony Award-winning musical Annie is returning to Music Theatre Louisville. The production runs from Aug. 6 to 15.

MTL put on the blockbuster hit twice before: in 1992 and 2000. The Broadway musical is based on the long-running comic strip by Harold Gray featuring plucky Little Orphan Annie and her adventures during the Great Depression. Eleven-year-old Annie, a moppet with her signature curly red hair, lives in a Dickensian New York City orphanage run by the cruel, tippling Miss Hannigan. She remains determined to find her parents and, through her cleverness, outwits Miss Hannigan and escapes, rescues the dog she names Sandy, meets the newly elected President Roosevelt (it's 1933, after all) and wins the heart of billionaire Oliver  “Daddy” Warbucks. Will Annie find her parents? Come to a performance and find out!

The show, which ran on Broadway for six years, contains the showstopping tunes “Tomorrow” and “It’s a Hard-Knock Life.” The musical, which opened in 1976, was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won seven, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. The show was revived in 1997, and film versions were made in 1982 and 1999. “Annie” has been in near constant production by regional theatres and has been produced professionally in at least 19 foreign countries.

The comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” first burst onto the pages of the Chicago Tribune in 1924, and later went into national syndication. With a new artist and writer, the strip continues to this day. The music for the Broadway musical “Annie” was written by Charles Strouse, who composed the music for the Broadway shows “Bye, Bye, Birdie” and  “Applause” and for the films “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The Night They Raided Minsky’s” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven.” The lyrics for “Annie” were written by Martin Charnin, and the book is by Thomas Meehan.

Like its sister theatre company, Stage One, Musical Theatre Louisville productions are now at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts’ Bomhard Theater in downtown Louisville. You can view a seating map of the Bomhard Theater.

You can buy tickets to public performances online, by calling (502) 584–7777 or by visiting the Kentucky Center’s box office in person  Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Or call (502) 498–2436 to buy a season subscription.

Pricing for single tickets is adults, $25; students aged 11 through college (with a college ID), $20; seniors 60 and older, also $20; and children 10 and younger, $10. So-called “rush tickets” — sold two hours prior to curtain — are $10. Tickets are $18 each for groups of 15 or more.

The Kentucky Center offers wheelchair access on every seating and parking level. With three weeks’ notice, sign interpretation is available for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing. 

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