Bet Your Bottom Dollar, ASA's 'Annie' to Be Show Stopper This Weekend

"The sun will come out..."

All of that singing at must have grabbed someone's attention. Our two weeks of gloominess have given way to sunnier days just in time for the Middletown school's production of "Annie: the Musical."

"Annie," one of the most beloved and popular family-friendly Broadway musicals of all time, runs at 7 p.m. May 27 and 28 this week at . The event is open to the public. Tickets are on sale now.

The show is the All Saints Academy's selection for this year's annual spring musical production. The event comes after months and months of auditions, rehearsals, wig fittings and singing about the "the hard-knock life" and how "the sun will come out tomorrow."

"This is our big number we do each year," ASA co-director and teacher Ann Villareal said. "We started rehearsals end of February and we've been rehearsing about three days a week."

The huge production is co-directed by Villareal, who teacher language arts and religion, and Tara Phelan, a Grade 2 teacher.

The show features a changing set designed by Father Peter Andrews, pastor at St. Christopher’s Church and president of the ASA school board, and includes a 48-member cast of students.

The ASA school puts on the annual spring musical as a big community event and typically all the proceeds at the door help the school recoup production costs for the next year, said Villareal.

"It's a fun-raiser, not a fundraiser," Villareal said with a smile.

Playing “Annie,” one of the most famous Broadway musical title characters of all time, is Grade 6 student Caroline Villareal. Her nemesis Miss Hannigan is played by Grade 7 student Alannah Walker.

“I didn’t know I was going to get this big part,” said Caroline, who auditioned with Disney’s “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” and has been rehearsing daily, both with the singing and dancing cast and on her own.

As Miss Hannigan, Walker said she’s looking forward to stepping into the big shoes as the corrupt head of the orphanage and that she feels fairly confident she’s got all her lines down by now. Said Walker, “I’m mainly nervous of when I’m going to say my line, not necessarily what my line is.”

The bigger challenge, she said, will be to play someone so mean. “I can’t be ladylike because Miss Hannigan is not very ladylike,” Walker laughed.

Theater newcomers like Grade 3 student Chloe Weaver, who plays an orphan, said she's “a little scared” but thinks it will end up being fun on stage. She was also looking forward to singing with the rest of the orphan chorus, she said.

Grade 8 student Avi Guerrero, who plays a servant and will sing and dance in the senior chorus, said the months of preparation were giving her more and more confidence as they got closer to showtime.

“It’s pretty exciting but it is a lot of work,” she noted.

Rounding out the cast as “Daddy Warbucks” will be Joey Cordeiro. (Production insiders have remained tight-lipped about whether Cordeiro is going all out, Bruce Willis-style, and losing the locks for the show or will sport a bald cap.)

Rounding out the cast in the roles of servants, orphans, other supporting characters, and the senior and junior chorus are students in Grades 2-8. Parent volunteers are helping out with stage mechanics and serving as stagehands, Villareal said.

Tickets and Showtimes

The All Saints Academy’s production of "Annie: The Musical" is at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday night, May 27-28, at , 125 Jepson Lane, Portsmouth. The event is open to the public. Tickets are on sale now at $6 each and may be purchased by calling 848-4300 or at the door.