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.
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Honk! opened to rave reviews from audiences members this weekend. A long time audience member said that this was her second favorite show she has seen at KFT (after Sound of Music), and she has seen a lot of shows. She absolutely loved the show, and is planning to bring friends back to see it.
. . . there are plenty of genuine laughs to go with the emotion of Andersen’s original messages; you know, “beauty is only skin deep,” and “it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
The cast is stocked with great voices — Beaven Walters [as Ida, Ugly’s mom], Meagan Castillo (as Ida’s intolerant friend Maureen), Kelly Goode (as the goose squadron’s aide de camp), Jenny Dreessen and Molly Hall (as a pair of overly domesticated house pets) and 13-year-old Katie Dreessen (as a swan) chief among them. Jason Gingold also sings well and carries a lot of the show’s comic responsibility as a cat who’s planning to have young Ugly over for dinner, hold the “over.”
Kitsap Sun, by Michael C. Moore, BREMERTON — There was a time when “
The musical — with music by George Stiles and book and lyrics by Anthony Drewe — might not be familiar to a lot of people as other entries in its genre, but the story certainly is: The “ugly duckling” endures the ridicule and ostracism of his peers, only to mature into a beautiful swan.
There are plenty of parts available if you want to be in the Ensemble, or if you have been on the stage before, or sung in a choir, try out for one of the male roles! Rehearsals are in Seattle, with some in Bremerton. During the run of the show, you get to experience the woods by camping in tents – how cool is that?
BREMERTON — This feedback is going to be partly about the feedback.