Getting Back to the Heart of Little Orphan Annie

As Rob Marshall, the Tony Award-winning choreographer-director of such Broadway hits as “Cabaret” and “Little Me” puts it: “The knee-jerk reaction to ‘Annie’ is ‘Oh, God, the little screaming child in a red dress,’ ” leaving many adults wanting to flee at the first strains of “Tomorrow.”

So why is this same Rob Marshall making his TV directorial debut with a production of “Annie” for ABC’s “Wonderful World of Disney”?

A bit of curiosity at the possibilities. In the story of Little Orphan Annie, the venerable comic strip character and heroine of the 1976 Broadway musical “Annie,” he saw a remarkably contemporary kid--plucky, intelligent and full of determination and spunk.

Marshall, who also choreographed the $12-million musical that will air Sunday night at 7, wanted to see what would happen if he stripped away all cartoon and saccharine elements and took “Annie” back to its essence: a “beautiful” story about a little girl looking for her family.

“It’s also about this man, Oliver Warbucks, looking for the child in him,” Marshall says.

Before production began, Marshall watched old Shirley Temple musicals made during the Depression-era ‘30s, the same era in which “Annie” is set.

“Those movies are very similar in some ways to the story of Annie,” Marshall explains. “Shirley Temple was always an orphan. They were about optimism during the Depression. Those movies were simple and beautiful.”

Marshall knew it was imperative not to treat this “Annie” like a cartoon.

“The most important thing to me was to approach ‘Annie’ like a classic piece, like ‘Oliver Twist.’ It wasn’t a joke show. It’s a classic American tale.”

Though the Martin Charnin-Charles Strouse musical won the Tony Award and is a perennial favorite at dinner and community theaters, the 1982 film version was regarded as better forgotten, despite a cast that included Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters and Tim Curry. Director John Huston, who was known for such classic screen dramas as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” was not at home directing musical numbers and little dancing orphans.

For this latest “Annie,” the producers went for some of the best film and Broadway talent that would build on Marshall’s deep understanding of musical theater.

Oscar winner Kathy Bates plays the evil Miss Hannigan, who operates the orphanage; Tony Award-winning Alan Cumming, who had worked with Marshall on “Cabaret,” plays her con-man brother, Rooster; three-time Tony winner Audra McDonald (“Ragtime”) is Grace, Daddy Warbucks’ devoted secretary; Tony nominee Victor Garber (“Damn Yankees,” “Godspell”) is the bald billionaire Warbucks; and Tony winner Kristen Chenoweth (“You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”) is Rooster’s dimwitted, blond girlfriend, Lily St. Regis. And Annie is played by 12-year-old Alicia Morton, a three-year veteran of the Broadway production of “Les Miserables.”

The musical was filmed this summer on the back lots of Universal and Warner Bros.

On one hot July morning, the cast is trying to keep its cool pretending it is Christmastime in New York. But it’s difficult. Bates and Cumming are sweltering in heavy coats and hats. Even Chester, the adorable mutt who plays Annie’s dog, Sandy, is resting by a fan during his down time.

The set, though, is a magical fairyland--a throwback to the movie musicals of yesterday. The foyer of Daddy Warbucks’ mansion is expansive with a huge marble staircase and a Christmas tree that would rival the one at Rockefeller Center in New York.

The scene finds Daddy Warbucks telling Annie he wants to adopt her. But their happiness is disrupted by Hannigan and Rooster, disguised as the Mudges, a poor couple claiming to be Annie’s real parents.

Watching the action intently are executive producers Craig Zadan and Neal Meron, who also produced the successful TV version of the musicals “Gypsy” and “Cinderella.” The latter, which starred Brandy and Whitney Huston, drew some 60 million viewers when it aired two years ago on “The Wonderful World of Disney.”

“In essence, ‘Annie’ is another way of doing the Cinderella story because at the end, instead of getting a prince, she gets a family,” Meron says.

Before taking on the project, though, Zadan wanted to look at the original material and see if they indeed could make it better. “If we can’t, we’re wasting our time,” he says.

So the two caught a touring production of the musical and watched the movie again. “The thing about ‘Annie’ is that it has a great story and great characters,” Zadan offers. “Yet there is so much stuff about it that people don’t like, but if you could take that stuff out and fix it. . . . That’s basically what we did.”

Score Orchestrated for the ‘90s

One of the biggest challenges was to make this “Annie” appeal to a diverse audience. “You announce Disney and ‘Annie,’ and every girl in the world is going to tune in,” Zadan says. But they wanted to win back adults and boys.

One of the keys was to rid the work of any mawkishness and make it more emotional in the process. The score also has been orchestrated for the ‘90s.

“I wanted to make the music a bit more powerful,” says executive producer Craig Montan, president of Walt Disney music. “We’re probably using 40 or 50 players rather than the 25 that would typically be on Broadway.

“Little Alicia Morton was an unbelievable singer for her age,” he says. “You can only tell so much in an audition. But when she got in front of the microphone and held some of those notes, I was just thrilled.”

The producers auditioned some 3,000 girls around the country for the role of Annie. “Alicia clearly had the best voice,” Zadan says. “Rob has worked with her a lot, directing her. Being around these actors, she is learning how to act.”

The diminutive redhead acknowledges she’s having a lot of fun making the movie and also riding the roller coasters at the local amusement parks on the weekend. “Once I get on the set, I don’t worry about myself,” Morton says. “I try to be Annie on the set and not me.”

Bates is also having a blast on her first musical. “I worked with a vocal coach,” she says. “He’s really good at helping to place the voice and strengthen the voice so it doesn’t get tired.”

In this version, Miss Hannigan is no longer a slave to the bottle. “She is frustrated with her lot in life,” Bates explains, “but we decided not to go with the alcohol and smoking. She’s approaching middle age and she’s hoping to win the lottery. There’s no hope in sight until her brother comes and cons her into this shenanigan.”

Garber, who worked with Marshall five years ago in “Damn Yankees,” never in his wildest dreams thought he would be playing Daddy Warbucks.

“I didn’t know the show,” he says. “It’s not a show I thought I would be interested in, and now I love the show. I would do anything Rob Marshall asked.”

Even having his thick brown hair shaved off wasn’t too traumatic for the actor. “I sort of feel invigorated by it in a funny way,” Garber says.

As with “Cinderella,” Zadan and Meron opted for colorblind casting for “Annie.” The orphans are a rainbow of colors and ethnicities. And McDonald was thrilled to be cast in a role normally not considered for an African American.

“I think I am not the only African American or any sort of minority who could have played that role,” says McDonald, whose character ends up engaged to Daddy Warbucks. “Neal and Craig trust if you cast well it doesn’t matter what color you are. I applaud them for it. But honestly, if they had someone else in the role and they had been a minority, I would have been just as thrilled.”