Tuesday, April 10, 2012

beyond fred, ginger & gene

John Huston's 1982 film version of "Annie" is as wildly underrated - by critics - as Rob Marshall's dull 1999 TV version is overrated.

Largely by the same critics.

Huston did some clever maneuvering in bringing "Annie" to the screen, ably abetted by scenarist Carol Sobieski: He brought Punjab (played by Geoffrey Holder) back into the story; he directed star Albert Finney (as Daddy Warbucks) to affect Huston's own vocal intonations (it's a terrific voice impersonation); he famously told Carol Burnett to play Miss Hannigan "soused"; he hired the perfect kid - Aileen Quinn - to play Little Orphan Annie, and he had the composers Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin write a fluid new number for Ann Reinking's Grace Farrell.

It's called "We Got Annie" and it's gorgeous.

The number: “We Got Annie!”

The composers: Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin

The singers: Ann Reinking, Lu Leonard and company

The choreographer: Arlene Phillips

The dancers: Reinking, Geoffrey Holder, Roger Minami and company

The cinematographer: Richard Moore

The editor: Michael A. Stevenson

The production designer: Dale Hennesy

1 comment:

John Kaiser said...

No better legs than Anne. I came out of that theater with a huge crush on Reinking.