Annie Returns to the Arden Stage

St Albert Children's Theatre's upcoming production of Annie marks a full-circle moment for its director, Janice Flower.

It was also the very first show that Flower directed for the company back in 1995.

“I still have very, very fond memories of that show,” she recalls. “And funnily enough, one of the young girls that's playing an orphan [in this production] is the daughter of one of our Annies from 1995.”

The titular tale of a plucky red-haired orphan has been resonating with audiences for decades: there have been plenty of revivals, regional shows, and country-crossing tours of Annie since the musical debuted in 1977. Timeless songs like “It’s a Hard Knock Life” and “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow” worked their way into broader cultural memory, enduring almost 50 years later.

Not every old musical ages that well.

“Some of them are kind of cringey now,” Flower says. “There's parts that are like, ‘Oh, can we do that?’ … But there really is nothing in the show that feels like that at all.”

The fact that it has good roles for both children and adults also made it a strong contender to revisit: since the pandemic, St. Albert’s Children’s Theatre has made room for adults in their productions in addition to the company of youths.

“We've been talking about this for the last 25 years, [that] really, this community should have an adult component to the program,” Flower notes. “The program should be serving the entire community.

“The very first year we had maybe seven or eight adults audition, we ended up casting three,” she continues. “Every year since then the adult component has grown and grown.”

That means that for this production, Flower is managing a total cast of 48—ranging in age from eight to sixty—including double-cast roles and understudies, as well as two dogs: a golden doodle named Friday and a retriever-cross named Louie. Each dog, sharing the canine role of Sandy, is dedicated to one of the double-cast Annie actors.

“We wanted each Annie to have their own relationship with their own dog, so the dogs don’t get confused,” Flower explains. “The girls are doing really well working with them in rehearsal and finding ways to adjust if they don't do exactly what they're supposed to do.”

Annie’s resonance with modern audiences seems connected to the title character’s positivity, Flower notes.

“It's about finding your place and finding your people,” she says. “We need a show like this I think right now, because Annie is just so optimistic about life and that things are gonna turn out okay. It's really heartwarming.”

Article written by Paul Blinov

Annie runs from November 27 to December 7th at the Arden Theatre. More information can be found at stalbert.ca/exp/sact/events/.

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