Renaissance Players present musical Annie Dec. 1-17

Release Date: 11/7/2006. Expired: 12/17/2006

The musical that taught us tomorrow “is only a day away” comes to the stage of The Renaissance Center in Dickson Dec. 1-17 when the Renaissance Players present a community production of Annie.

Shows are 7 p.m. Dec. 1-2, 8-9, 15-16 and 2 p.m. Dec. 3, 10 and 17. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for children under 13. A special lunch matinee will be Saturday, Dec. 16, with a buffet lunch at noon and the show at 1 p.m. Tickets are $17 and include lunch and the performance.

Annie is a spunky, Depression-era orphan determined to find her parents who abandoned her years earlier on the doorstep of a New York City orphanage operated by the cruel, embittered Miss Hannigan. In adventure after adventure, Annie spoils Miss Hannigan’s plans, inspires President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create the New Deal and finds a new family and home with billionaire Oliver Warbucks and a lovable mutt named Sandy.

Inspired by Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie comic strip, Annie hit Broadway in 1977 and ran for six years, becoming the longest-running musical of the 1970s with more than 2,300 performances.

Songs such as It’s a Hard Knock Life and the show’s signature Tomorrow have become stage standards with the latter being recorded by over 150 different artists.

Annie picked up seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Choreography.

A 1997 Annie revival featured the late Nell Carter as Miss Hannigan and was nominated for Best Revival.

The play spawned a 1982 movie that starred Carol Burnett, Albert Finney, Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters and a 1999 TV movie featuring Kathy Bates and Victor Garber.

The musical launched the career of Andrea McArdle in the title role and she went on to perform on Broadway in productions of Les Miserables, Starlight Express, Beauty and the Beast and State Fair and has recorded two CDs, one featuring popular Broadway tunes and the other a collection of Christmas songs.

Hal Partlow, manager of the Renaissance Repertory Company, will be directing Annie for the Renaissance Players. Partlow has previously directed community productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Christmas Story, Annie Get Your Gun and Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as 30 other productions for the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and Mind Enriching Theatre series at The Renaissance Center.

The cast of Annie includes more than 100 people, including over 70 children, making it the largest Renaissance Players production to date.

“We have a terrific cast that is working hard with choreographer Bryan J. Wlas and music director Nathan W. Brown,” Partlow said. “There are several veterans of past community productions as well as many new faces who will be appearing on our stage for the first time. It promises to be a fun and entertaining experience for the entire family.”

For more information on the Renaissance Players production of Annie, call (615) 740-5600 or visit The Renaissance Center’s website at www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets for a performance, call (615) 740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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