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Home , Adolph Green, All American (musical), Annie (franchise), Annie (musical), Annie Warbucks, Betty Comden

AUDIENCE GUIDE AUDIENCE 2017

- 2018 | Our 58th Season | Issue 2 |Issue Season 58th Our | 2018

November 17—December 27, 2017 Music by Lyrics by

Book by

In 1977, one of the most popular comic What better time than the holidays to tell strips of all time, ’s Little the heartwarming story of a strong, Orphan , was adapted into one of independent, optimistic girl who never the most successful and beloved gives up. And who better to guide the Broadway musicals of all time, Annie. telling of this story than our director, Molly With music by Charles Strouse, lyrics Rhode? Molly is a longtime member of by Martin Charnin and book by Thomas the Skylight family as both an actor Meehan, the show opened on April 21, (Pump Boys and Dinettes, , The IN THIS ISSUE 1977. It was an instant hit. Producers) and as director of two of our

most popular and successful productions, Times critic Clive Barnes and Les Miserables. Original Comic Strip wrote, “To dislike the new musical Molly brings a sharp intellect, tremendous Annie would be tantamount to disliking creativity and expertise gained from Composer and Authors motherhood, peanut butter, friendly on both sides of the footlights. mongrel dogs and nostalgia. Annie is an The Depression intensely likable musical. You might even We think audiences will be impressed by call it lovable.” Orphanages the creativity and vision of the whole team who have worked together to and F.D.R. Annie won seven : Best transform the Cabot stage into a rundown Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best orphanage, a billionaire’s mansion, the Historical References Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, White House and a shantytown. Coupled Best Choreography and Best with our wonderful cast of both young and Performance by an Actress in a Leading adult performers, and two adorable dogs Role for as Miss alternating in the role of Sandy, Annie is Hannigan. the Skylight’s gift to our audiences. The original Broadway production ran for Happy Holidays! nearly six years. It set box office records for the time and spawned numerous

productions all over the world along with several movie adaptations.

This guide is available online at skylightmusictheatre.org This production is generously Annie’s journey to the Broadway stage sponsored by was a long one. The curly-topped orphan first appeared in , a daily American comic strip that made its debut in 1924 in the . The strip took its name from the 1885 poem, by , known as the Season Sponsors “Hoosier Poet.” Below is stanza of the poem: Little Orphant Annie’s come to our

house to stay, Harold Lincoln Gray (1894 – 1968) An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away, An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, was a reporter for the an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep, Tribune before enlisting in the army to An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, serve in World War I. an’ earn her board-an’-keep; After his discharge, he returned to An’ all us other childern, the , which, at that when the supper things is done, time, was being reworked by owner We set around the kitchen fire Joseph Patterson into an important an’ has the mostest fun national journal. As part of his plan, A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales Patterson wanted to publish comic ‘at Annie tells about, strips that would lend themselves to An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you nationwide syndication and to film and ef you don’t watch out! radio adaptations. Initially, Gray

submitted the strip as Little Orphan Little Orphan Annie was created by Otto, but changed it to Little Orphan Harold Lincoln Gray (1894 – 1968). Gray Annie. was born in Kankakee, Illinois and grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana. Although he studied engineering at Purdue University, graduating in 1917, Research/Writing by he turned to a career in journalism. He

Justine Leonard for ENLIGHTEN,

Skylight Music Theatre’s Education Program

Edited by Ray Jivoff [email protected]

Margaret Bridges [email protected]

158 N. Broadway , WI 53202 (414) 291-7811 www.skylightmusictheatre.org Costumes designed by Jason Orlenko

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ANNIE contemporary events. During World Gray said in 1952 that Annie's origin War II, while many advocated lay in an encounter he had with a neutrality, "Daddy" Warbucks was ragamuffin wandering the streets of manufacturing tanks, planes and Chicago. "I talked to this little kid and munitions while Annie did her part by liked her right away," Gray said. "She blowing up a German submarine and had sense, knew how to take organizing youth groups called the care of herself. Her name was Annie. Junior Commandos to collect At the time there were some 40 strips recyclable materials for the war effort. with boys as the main characters; only three with girls. I made Annie an In the post-war years, Annie took on orphan so she'd have no family or The Bomb, communism, teenage alliances, and had the freedom to go rebellion and other social and political where she pleased.” issues, often provoking the anger of clergymen, union leaders and others. Little Orphan Annie was launched August 5, 1924, and it became one of Spin-offs in merchandising, films and the most successful comic strips in radio made Gray a millionaire. Little history. The plot follows Annie, her Orphan Annie was adapted into a second in 1938. Both films were dog Sandy and her benefactor Oliver 15-minute radio show in Chicago in panned by the critics. "Daddy" Warbucks. It is considered to 1930 and went national in 1931. It left be the first American comic strip to the air in 1942. At its peak, the show A Fortune Magazine popularity poll in express a political philosophy, had about 6 million fans. In his book, 1937 indicated Little Orphan Annie attracting adult readers with its The Great Radio Heroes, radio ranked as the number one comic strip, commentary about organized labor, historian Jim Harmon attributes the ahead of Popeye, Dick Tracy, Bringing the and communism. show's success to the fact that it was Up Father,The Gumps, Blondie, Moon the only radio show to deal with and Mullins, Joe Palooka and Li'l Abner. Earlier strips relied on a formula in appeal to young children. which is away on After Gray’s death, the strip continued business and Annie is cast out of the A popular reference to the radio show under other cartoonists with varying Warbucks mansion, usually by the appears in the 1983 film, A Christmas success. By 2010, it was running in nasty Mrs. Warbucks. The devise Story. The main character, Ralph, is fewer than 20 U.S. newspapers and allows Annie to wander the crushed when he finally receives the after 86 years, the strip's final episode countryside and have adventures decoder pin offered to decipher clues appeared on Sunday, June 13, 2010. helping people and often fighting given at the end of each Little Orphan political corruption, criminal gangs and Annie radio show broadcast and the Rapper Jay-Z has referenced Little corrupt institutions. message is from the show’s sponsor: Orphan Annie in at least two of his "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine." songs, as well as sampled It's the The strip was "conservative and Hard Knock Life for Hard Knock Life topical," according to The Great Two film adaptations were released at (Ghetto Anthem) in 1999. Depression in America: A Cultural the height of Annie's popularity in the It seems that in one way or another, Encyclopedia, and "represents the 1930s, the first in 1932 and the personal vision of Gray's homespun Annie will always be with us. philosophy of hard work, respect for elders and a cheerful outlook on life."

It also allowed Gray to express his own political views. When President Roosevelt proposed his New Deal, Gray saw these programs as government interference in private enterprise. He railed against Roosevelt and his programs and even had Daddy Warbucks lose his fortune and die from despair at the election of Roosevelt. After FDR's death, Gray resurrected Warbucks, who said, "Somehow the climate here has changed since I went away.”

Through the years, the strip was successful with it’s focus on

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE Their next project, It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman (1966), was a disappointment, but four years later, the team had another hit with . Adapted by and from the film , the 1970 musical won four Tony Awards®, including Best Musical.

Then came Annie! Hugely successful and beloved by generations, the 1977 Tony Award® winning musical ran on Broadway for six years and was adapted into a film three times. This cultural phenomenon also spawned two unsuccessful stage sequels: Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge (1989) and (1992).

Charles Strouse – Composer Strouse’s later, less successful work A three-time Tony Award®-winning includes (1985) based on the composer, Charles Strouse has written book by N.Y. Mayor ; more than two dozen shows over his (1986) with Stephen Schwartz and Nick fifty-year career. He has also & Nora (1991) with Richard Maltby, Jr. composed classical work, , top forty hits, film and television music. Strouse also wrote film scores One of his most famous songs is including Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Those Were the Days, the theme song The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968). of the classic sitcom . He wrote the music and lyrics for the 1987 HBO animated special Lyle, Lyle Strouse was born in in Crocodile and contributed four songs 1928, and studied music at the to the popular animation feature All Eastman School of Music in Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). Rochester. He composed several Off- Broadway and had several In 1982, Strouse wrote a children’s radio hits including Born Too Late opera, The , based on a recorded by the Poni-Tails, which story. It has made the Billboard charts in 1958. been performed often in the U.S. and around the world. Strouse found success when he joined lyricist for the first of many Charles Strouse founded the ASCAP collaborations for Bye, Bye Birdie Workshop, a forum for (1960). The show was inspired by the young composers and lyricists. He was hysteria in response to ’s awarded the 1999 ASCAP induction into the Army. The show Foundation’s Award featured the hits Put on a Happy Face for lifetime achievement, is enrolled in and A Lot of Livin' to Do and may be the Theater Hall of Fame and the the first . The show won Hall of Fame. the Tony Award® for Best Musical and a movie version was released in 1963. When it was remade for television in 1995, a new song, Let’s Settle Down, won Strouse an Emmy Award®.

Strouse and Adams reunited for a college-football musical comedy called (1962), with a book by , followed by a musical adaptation of ’s boxing play, (1964) starring Sammy Davis, Jr.

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ANNIE

Thomas Meehan - Book Thomas Meehan, (1929-2017, right) wrote the books for an amazing array of shows including three that ran over 2,000 performances: Annie (1977); (2001) and (2002). Meehan won Tony Awards for all three shows.

Born in 1929 in Ossining, New York, Meehan graduated in 1951 from College in Clinton, N.Y., then served as an Army intelligence officer Martin Charnin- Lyricist for two years. In the mid-fifties, he Martin Charnin, born in New York in joined the staff of the New Yorker 1934, has had a long career in musical Magazine and worked with S.J. theater as a composer, writer, director Perelman and James Thurber. and lyricist. He has received two Tony® Awards, six Grammy® Awards, Meehan worked with Mel Brooks on three Emmy® Awards, three Gold the screenplays of 1983’s To Be or Records, two Platinum Records, six Not to Be, a remake of a 1942 Jack Benny movie spoofing Nazi Drama Desk Awards, a Peabody Award for Broadcasting and most and (1987), a sendup of recently another Grammy® Award for sci-fi films. Jay-Z's rap album Hard Knock Life The Producers, written with Mel which went triple platinum in 1999. Brooks, based on Brooks’ 1967 film, He started as a performer, appearing made Broadway history. The show as one of the Jets in the original opened in 2001 to sold-out houses and made Tony history when it won a production of . He wrote lyrics for Off-Broadway revues record-setting 12 awards. and, after several Broadway flops, was lyricist on (1970), with Hairspray (2003), written with Mark O’Donnell and , was an music by Richard Rodgers and a book based on the story of Noah’s Ark by even bigger box-office hit than Annie which starred Danny or The Producers. It was nominated Kaye as Noah. for 13 Tony Awards, winning eight, including one for Best Musical. It ran In the early 1970s, he wrote, produced for six years. and directed six television variety specials including S'Wonderful, Meehan also wrote the books for

S'Marvelous, S'Gershwin (1972), which Young (2007), again with starred , Mel Brooks; Cry Baby (2008), an and and won two adaptation of the film; Elf: primetime . The Musical (2010) and Rocky (2014).

The watershed moment of his career “His work brought deeper meaning was writing lyrics and directing the and complexity to well-known musical, Annie (1977), which was a characters. Audiences all over the hit. He has since directed world will continue to be delighted and dozens of productions of Annie, engaged with his stories and his words including the 20th and the 30th in years to come,” said Charlotte St. anniversary productions on Broadway. Martin, president of the Broadway The latter production in 2004 toured League. As for Meehan, he just loved for over three years. what we was doing: “I think of my Charnin is the Artistic Director of career as just one thing after another,” Showtunes!, a in Seattle, he told the New York Observer. “Just Sources include www.charlesstrouse.com and bumbling along like you don’t know The World of Musical Comedy by Stanley Green Washington, devoted to resurrecting 4th Edition; A Da Capo paperback – March, forgotten and unsung musicals. what’s around the next turn, which is 1984; Gale Research, 1993. what I always wanted.”

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE The Programs that became known as the Throughout the 1920s, a period New Deal were established: the Works dubbed “the Roaring Twenties,” the Progress Administration (WPA), a jobs U.S. economy expanded rapidly, and program that employed 8.5 million the nation’s total wealth more than people; the AAA (Agricultural doubled. After nearly a decade of Adjustment Administration), aimed at prosperity, the U. S. was thrown into helping farmers; the CCC (Civilian the Great Depression, which lasted Conservation Corps), created jobs from 1929 to 1941. It was the worst related to the development of natural economic downturn in modern history. resources and the Tennessee Valley It began after the stock market crash Authority (TVA) built dams and of October 1929, which wiped out hydroelectric projects to provide millions of investors. By 1933, when electric power to the impoverished the Great Depression reached its Tennessee Valley region. lowest point, nearly half the country’s banks had failed and one in four When the Great Depression began, Americans were unemployed. the was the only industrialized country in the world It’s a Hard Knock Life Roosevelt and the New Deal without some form of unemployment During the Great Depression, stories The Great Depression began during insurance or social security. In 1935, like Annie’s were true ones for many the presidency of Herbert Hoover and Congress passed the Social Security children in cities like New York. Today, his administration was blamed for , which finally provided Americans we consider an orphan to be a child crisis. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the with unemployment, disability and with no living parent. At that time, 1932 presidential election in a pensions for old age. many orphans had at least one parent landslide. During Roosevelt’s first 100 living. It was not uncommon for days in office, his administration The End of the Great Depression desperate parents to leave their passed legislation to stabilize industrial While the New Deal programs eased children at an orphanage to ensure and agricultural production, create jobs the hardships of the Great Depression, their well-being while they attempted to and stimulate recovery. the major turn-around was the U.S. get their lives back on track. Many entrance into World War II. Weapons, travelled to other areas of the country He also began addressing the public artillery, ships and airplanes were trying to find work, intending to return directly over the radio in a series of so- needed quickly. Food needed to be and claim their children they had called “fireside chats” which went a grown for both the home front and to a means of support. long way toward restoring public send overseas. America was again confidence. moving full speed ahead. By the mid-30s, the number of children in American orphanages and the foster care system had exploded. Orphanages became so overcrowded that private aid groups tried to find ways of placing the orphans with families willing to take them in. There were Orphan Trains, in which children were put on the train with a one way ticket to rural areas of the country. The train stopped along the route, and locals took the children in as farm or household help.

Many children spent years in

orphanages waiting for their parents to come back. It’s hard to imagine the heartache of real-life girls like Annie waiting to be picked up by parents who never came.

References© 2017, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.- HistoryChannel.com; adoption.com, enclyclopedia.com, wisegeek, unionstreetplayers

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ANNIE Presidents Herbert Hoover and empty were called “Hoover flags" and Franklin D. Roosevelt are prominently broken-down cars pulled by horses featured in the storyline of Annie. were known as "Hoover wagons."

Herbert Hoover After leaving the presidency, Hoover (1874–1964, left) was spoke out on public issues, opposing the 31st president of U.S. entry into World War II until Pearl the United States Harbor and condemning U.S. (1929–1933). Hoover involvement in the Korean and was born in Iowa, Vietnam wars. He died at age 90 in the son of a New York City in 1964. blacksmith. He attended Stanford Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945, right) University, earning a was the 32nd American president and degree in geology. the only U.S. president to be elected spend the rest of his life in a After graduating, he worked for mining four times, serving from 1933 to 1945. wheelchair. His wife Eleanor urged companies around the world. He led the U.S. through the Great him not to give up and in 1929 he was Depression and World War II, greatly elected Governor of New York, During World War I, Hoover helped to expanding the powers of the federal serving two terms. evacuate 120,000 Americans from government through a series of throughout Europe. He was head of programs known as the New Deal. He was elected President in 1932 and the American Relief Administration These programs reinvented the role of at the height of the Great Depression, which fed 10.5 million people a day. government in Americans' lives, while he reassured the nation in his famous his presidency during World War II inaugural address that, "The only Hoover served as Secretary of established the U.S. leadership on the thing we have to fear is fear itself." Commerce for President Warren world stage. Harding. He spearheaded the In 1940, Roosevelt was elected to his construction of the St. Lawrence Roosevelt grew up in a wealthy and third term. On December 7, 1941 Seaway and the Hoover Dam. influential New York family, based in bombed the U.S. Naval base at Hyde Park, a town on the Hudson Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt had no As the Republican candidate for River north of New York City. He choice but to declare war. president in 1928, he won with a graduated from Harvard in 1904, campaign slogan of “A chicken in married his distant cousin worked with Great Britain’s every pot.” However, the stock market Roosevelt, went to Columbia Law Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin of crash in 1929 occurred just months School then began to practice law. the Soviet Union and the other Allied after he took office. Though Hoover Roosevelt was elected to the New Powers to defeat Germany and cut taxes and increased public works York State Senate in 1910 and later Japan. He and his wife Eleanor laid projects, it wasn’t enough. served as the Assistant Secretary of the groundwork for future peace by the Navy. following through on President Homeless camps became known as Woodrow Wilson’s plans for the ; newspapers became His career was interrupted in 1921 League of Nations by creating the "Hoover blankets," pockets of pants when he was stricken with polio. He United Nations. turned inside out to show they were As the war was coming to an end, Roosevelt had a fatal stroke at his retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia on April 12, 1945. Eleanor (below), who had reinvented the role of the First Lady, became a leader in her own right after his death, earning the title of First Lady of the World.

References: Biography.com; Eleanor and Franklin, New York: W.W. Norton, 1971.Eleanor: The Years Alone. New would York: W.W. Norton, 1972, by Joseph P. Lash - scenic design by Peter Dean Beck

2017-2018 | SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE “Babe" Ruth Cabinet members in the show (1895 – 1948) also (1880 –1965) known as "The Often called “The Sultan of Swat," Woman Behind The was the greatest New Deal,'’ she was a baseball player of all workers-rights time. He played for advocate who was the the New York Secretary of Labor Yankees from 1920 from 1933 to 1945, to 1934 and the first woman established many records, including appointed to the career home runs (714) and runs Duesenberg was an American luxury U.S. Cabinet. batted in (RBIs-2,213). He also has a automobile. The company was delicious candy bar named after him. founded by brothers August and Harold Ickes (1874 – 1952) Frederick Duesenberg in 1913 in Saint Walter Winchell Paul, Minnesota. The Depression was Secretary of the Interior, in charge of the (1897 – 1972) was an brought about the closing of the major relief program, American newspaper company in 1937. the Works Progress and radio gossip Administration (WPA), commentator, known and New Deal's for trying to destroy J. Edgar Hoover environmental efforts. the careers of people (1895 – 1972), was the He was a prominent whom he disliked. first Director of the liberal spokesman and Federal Bureau of supporter of African- Investigation (FBI), American causes. Don Budge from 1935 until his (1915 – 2000) death in 1972 at the was an American age of 77. tennis champion (1871 – 1955) who is the first was the Secretary of player to win Al Capone (1899 – 1947), State for 11 years the Grand also known as in the Roosevelt Slam of tennis. Scarface, was a administration during

mobster and crime boss most of World War II.

who attained fame as a He received the Nobel

violent bootlegger Peace Prize in 1945

during the Prohibition for his role in creating Bernard Baruch era in Chicago. the United Nations. (1870 –1965) was an American Louis Howe (1871 – 1936) financier and was a reporter for philanthropist who Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1898–2003), was First Lady of the New York advised Presidents Herald who Woodrow the Republic of China and one of became an early Wilson and advisor to F.D.R. Franklin D. the most powerful women in the He ran Roosevelt's Roosevelt. campaign for world. She was a source of the N.Y. State invaluable support Senate and his Al Smith (1873 – 1944) for her husband, landslide 1932 was Governor of General Chiang Kai presidential victory. New York for four -Shek. With charm He also encouraged Eleanor terms. An opponent and diplomacy, she secured Roosevelt to take an active role in of Prohibition, he international support for war-torn, politics, coaching her in public was the 1928 poverty-stricken China. In 1943, she speaking. Howe died before the end of Democratic became the first Chinese person, and Roosevelt's first term. Eleanor called presidential only the second woman, to address a Howe one of the most influential candidate, the first joint session of the U.S. Congress. people in her life. Catholic nominee from either party.

AUDIENCE GUIDE | ANNIE