‘Annie' is just as much fun in the summertime!

Kitsap Sun Review by Michael C. Moore, July 27, 2014 BREMERTON — Little Orphan Annie is a city girl at heart, and her story — at least that part of it related in the musical “Annie” — is set at Christmas time. So I didn’t know how she’d fare in the tree-framed confines of the Kitsap Forest Theatre, in mid-summer.

Turns out I needn’t have worried. “Annie” is such a sturdy, dependable crowd-pleaser, and the Mountaineers Players (helmed by Craig Schieber) are giving it such an affectionate and thoughtful treatment that I can’t imagine anyone climbing out afterward being any less than satisfied.

It’s obvious that Schieber knows his way around the venue, the seeming ease with which he’s able to tell what is an interior-dominated story in such an exterior setting. He makes canny blocking choices throughout and pretty much bans the scene change altogether, keeping the episodic story churning along at a breakneck pace that doesn’t allow the attentions of even the youngest patrons (and there were many little ones in the July 26 opening-day performance I attended) to stray. The cast double as stage hands, and all the scene changes are done on the fly, a scene beginning even as the previous one is cleared off.

I had noticed that some of the musical numbers were performed at a more deliberate pace than what I was used to (and this is about the umpteenth time I’ve seen “Annie”). But the continuity allowed by the spare set (including the most versatile wood crates known to man, doubling as everything from orphans’ bunks and the meeting table for FDR’s cabinet to skyscrapers) and Schieber’s quick-change strategy allowed the Mountaineers to bring the performance — the opening-day performance, remember — in at a relatively crisp two and a half hours, including intermission.

Another big plus for the production is the keyboard accompaniment of Greg Smith, whose voices run the gamut from honky-tonk piano to synthesizer, and give the folks onstage orchestral-sounding backing throughout.

The acting isn’t uniformly good, but the leads all are solid, starting with 10-year-old Sophie Walters, who makes a spunky, full-throated Annie, acing both of her big ballads, “Maybe” and “Tomorrow,” and getting some good mileage out of the plentiful comedy in her line load. (Jasmine Harrick, also 10, alternates in the role, and I’ve seen her enough in KFT shows to feel certain that she’ll be every bit as effective.)

Chris Shea makes an impressive Kitsap debut as Warbucks. The character doesn’t appear until well into the first act, but is probably the busiest in both line and lyric from that point on, and he handles it all ably. Another KFT first-timer, Marine Madesclaire, is an appropriately authoritative Grace, and she and Shea provide possibly the show’s two best voices.

I thought early on that Cheryl Phillips was going to opt for scary over silly as Miss Hannigan, but she settled nicely into a combination of the two — a must for the show’s ersatz “villain” — and was particularly effective at finding the comedy in her big musical number, “Little Girls.” I also liked Bob Stahley, a fine, deadpan Drake; Tiffany Rousseau, who made the most of her brief solo as the Star to Be in the “N.Y.C.” production number; Schieber’s entire raft of orphans (14 in all, ranging from pint-sized to prep school); Jason Gingold (Rooster) who was a constant source of eye-catching movement; and the well-trained, fully engaged Panda, who played Annie’s pooch pal, Sandy.

Without much in the way of set pieces, and no lighting bells and whistles, Schieber could fall back on his own effective blocking, the stage-filling choreography of Guy Caridi and the (as usual) spectacular costumes by Barbara Klingberg. You just have to appreciate the kind of attention to detail that had the orphans’ dresses color-coded to their gift packages for the joyous “New Deal for Christmas” finale.

It’s true that “Annie” is set on the days leading up to Christmas, 1933. And the most recent productions I’ve seen of it have been seasonal.

But as it turns out, there’s really no bad time to see “Annie.” So sunny is its disposition, so welcome its songs and one-liners, so universal and relevant are its messages, that it truly is a show for all seasons, Christmas tree or no.

The Mountaineers’ show is further proof of that. Pack some sunscreen and bug spray, make a picnic and hike down to see it.

REVIEW

‘ANNIE’

Who: Mountaineers Players

What: Musical by Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comics

Where: Kitsap Forest Theatre, 3000 Seabeck Highway, Bremerton

When: Through August 17; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Tickets: $16-$14 advance, $18-$16 gate

Information: 206-542-7815, foresttheater.com

Kitsap Sun Review

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