Shortly before Christmas, 1971, Martin Charnin, a lyricist and director, received a collection of Little Orphan Annie comic strips and began imagining a musical comedy based on the main character. After convincing librettist Thomas Meehan and composer Charles Strouse to join him in writing the show, Charnin and his collaborators created the musical in 14 months. However, it took four and a half years to get to Broadway because no producer thought it stood a chance.

Annie premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, in the summer of 1976. The first young actress to play Annie was Kristen Vigard — but after one week of shows the producers replaced her with Andrea McCardle. At Goodspeed, the show won the approval of Mike Nichols, who offered to produce it on Broadway. After a highly successful run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the show opened on Broadway on April 21, 1977, and was quickly embraced by theatergoers. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning seven of them (including Best Musical). The original Broadway production ran for 2,377 performances before closing on Jan. 2, 1983.

Between 1978 and 1983, four road companies of Annie toured the United States. In 1982, a major motion picture version (starring Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks, Aileen Quinn as Annie, Ann Reinking as Grace and Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan) was released. The Broadway production — which had cost $800,000 to produce in 1977 — ended up earning a profit of $20 million (including the $9.5 million deal for the movie rights). Since then, the show has been revived on Broadway twice (in 1997 and 2012) and a third revival is slated to open in the fall of 2027.

A made-for-television version of Annie, produced by the Walt Disney Company, aired on the ABC-TV network in November 1999. This version -- which won two Emmy Awards - starred Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan, Victor Garber as Daddy Warbucks, Alan Cumming as Rooster Hannigan, Audra McDonald as Grace and Kristin Chenoweth as Lily. In 2014, a new movie adaptation updated the story to the present day. This version featured Jamie Fox as the Daddy Warbucks character (but with a new name, Will Stacks). Also starring in this version were Quvenzhané Wallis as Annie, Rose Byrne as Grace Farrell, and Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan. In 2021, NBC aired a live broadcast of the musical featuring Harry Connick, Jr., as Daddy Warbucks and Taraji P. Henson as Miss Hannigan.

Weathervane Playhouse first presented Annie in 1994 as part of its Mainstage Series and revived the show in 1995 as an extra "holiday show." In the summer of 2012, Annie returned to our stage as a Young Actor Series show.

THOMAS MEEHAN (book) received the Tony Award for co-writing the book for The Producers in 2001 and in 2003 for co-writing the book for Hairspray. He received his first Tony Award in 1977 for writing the book of Annie, which was his first Broadway show, and has written the books for the musicals Rocky, Elf the Musical, Cry-Baby, Young Frankenstein, Chaplin, Bombay Dreams, I Remember Mama, Ain’t Broadway Grand and Annie Warbucks. In addition, he was a long-time contributor of humor to The New Yorker, an Emmy-Award winning writer of television comedy, and a collaborator on several screenplays, including Mel Brooks' Spaceballs and To Be Or Not To Be. 

CHARLES STROUSE (music) won his first Tony Award for his first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie (1960). In 1970, Applause, starring Lauren Bacall, achieved the same honors. His smash hit, Annie (1977), also won a Tony for Best Score as well as two Grammy Awards. Some of his other musicals include All American; Golden Boy (starring Sammy Davis, Jr.); It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman; I and Albert and Dance a Little Closer. His film scores include Bonnie and Clyde, The Night They Raided Minsky's, and Ishtar. “Those Were the Days,” the theme song for TV's All in the Family, is a Strouse song, with lyrics by Lee Adams. 

MARTIN CHARNIN (lyrics) was a lyricist, composer, librettist, writer, and actor who began his career on stage as “Big Deal,” one of the Jets, in the original Broadway production of West Side Story. He was subsequently the director, lyricist, composer, librettist, producer or a combination of the aforementioned, for over 140 theatrical productions, including Annie, Annie Warbucks, the rock opera version of Joan of Arc, Mata Hari, Loose Lips, Star-Crossed, Sid Caesar and Company, Carnal Knowledge, In Persons starring Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, The Flowering Peach, Winchell, the revised Can Can by Cole Porter (for which he wrote a new libretto), Cafe Crown, Mike, Laughing Matters, The No Frills Revue, The First, On the Swing Shift, A Little Family Business, Upstairs at O'Neals, The National Lampoon Show, Lena Horne on Broadway, I Remember Mama, and internationally and regionally, 17 productions of Annie. He was the recipient of a Tony Award (for Annie), two Emmy Awards, one Peabody Award for Broadcasting, and two Drama Desk Awards.

ANNIE
Esther Lynne Nichols
(Dec. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 18, 19 and 20)

Margot L. Payne
(Nov. 27, 28, 29 and Dec. 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13)

SANDY
Winnie Smith

DADDY WARBUCKS
George Georgiadis

GRACE FARRELL
Lindsey Leonard

MISS HANNIGAN
Sandra Montevideo

ROOSTER HANNIGAN
Noah Casino

LILY ST. REGIS
Rachael Armbruster

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Rob Albrecht

MOLLY
May Blower

PEPPER/Vocal Captain for the Orphan Ensemble
Gianna Chase

DUFFY/Dance Captain for the Orphan Ensemble
Ella Bell Peters

JULY
Sami Stulak

TESSIE
Elsie Leonard

KATE
Maya Terlonge

Drake/Wacky
Ben Lowery

Mrs. Pugh/SOPHIE
Melanie Scott

Star to Be/Boylan Sister/Annette
Savanah Hernandez

Boylan Sister
Jayda Blackmon

Boylan Sister/Cecille
Sadiah Slay Larkin

Eddie/Bert Healy/Bundles
Brandon Crites

Dog Catcher/Brandeis/Ickes
Elijah Blower

Hull
Truth McCadney

Apple Seller/Morganthau
Nate Jackson

Lt. Ward/Howe
Toussaint English

Asst. Dog Catcher/SANTA/Ensemble
Sean Vollman

Dance Captain/Mrs. Greer
Tong Xu

Perkins/Ensemble
Juliet Hooks

USHERETTE/ENSEMBLE
Silvia Peterson

Ensemble
Ali Schimmoeller, Layne Weakland

Orphan Ensemble
Avery Gaskins, Amelia Leonard, Riley O’Neill, Maggie Repp

Newsies
Galilee Blower, Holden Peterson, Garrett Sveda

Hannigan US
Alicia Diaz-Valls

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT US
Michael Gaffney

Act 1

Overture
Maybe
It's the Hard Knock Life
It's Hard Knock Life (Reprise)
Tomorrow
We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover
Little Girls
Little Girls (Reprise)
I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here
N.Y.C.
N.Y.C. (Reprise)/Lullaby
Easy Street
You Won't Be an Orphan for Long
Maybe (Reprise)

Act 2

Maybe (Reprise II)
You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile
You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile (Children Reprise)
Easy Street (Reprise)
Tomorrow (Reprise)
Tomorrow (Cabinet Reprise II)
Something Was Missing
Annie
I Don't Need Anything But You
Maybe (Reprise III)
A New Deal for Christmas
We Got Annie
Tomorrow (Finale)

There will be a 20-minute intermission between the acts.

Raquel Faiello-Teare, Music Director, Keyboards
Alex McPherson, Trumpet
Abi Huff, Reeds
Gia Ricchiuti, Bass
Eric Kish, Guitar
Scott Thomas, Percussion
Vocal Director/Rehearsal Pianist: Ron Hazelett
Rehearsal pianist: Bill Kist