Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/751563
NOVEMBER 16-22, 2016 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM There was a popular car toon in t he 1920s called Lit t le Orphan Annie. It was created by Harold Gray. The st rip ran t hrough t he '30s and '40s. Fast for ward to 1970. Mar t in Charnin, a ly ricist and a director, purchased a cof fee t able book called The Life and Hard Times of Lit t le Orphan Annie for his f riend. A s he was get t ing ready to w rap t he book, Charnin opened it to peek inside. He ended up reading t he ent ire book . Charnin fell in love w it h Lit t le Orphan Annie t hat day and st ar ted pursuing t he right s. He t alked w it h his f riends Charles St rouse, a t wo-t ime Tony award-w inning composer and Thomas Meehan, a shor t stor y w riter for The New Yorker. In 1971, t hey st ar ted work w rit ing t he musical. The musical has been t hrough several iterat ions since t hen. On Thursday, Nov. 17, Annie comes to Givens Performing Ar t s Center. It was six years before Annie debuted at t he Goodspeed Opera House. There, it was rev ised and changed. Then Lew is A llen and Mike Nichols chose to produce Annie as t heir f irst Broadway show. It opened in 1977 at t he A lv in Theat re, which is now t he Neil Simon Theat re. It ran for 2,377 performances and won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score and Choreography. The cast included Reid Shelton (Oliver Warbuck s), Dorot hy Loudon (Miss Hannigan), Sandy Faison (Grace Farrell) and Andrea McArdle (Annie). Sarah Jessica Parker and A llison Smit h also st arred in t he t it le role during t he original Broadway run. Since then, Annie has returned to Broadway t wice – in 1997 and 2012. It's the 13th longest-running American musical to run on Broadway. It's been translated into 28 languages and has been performed in 34 countries. This production of Annie is directed by the same man who fell in love with the comic strip in 1970: Martin Charnin. It's choreographed by Liza Gennaro. Annie includes such favorites as"It 's t he Hard K nock Life," "Easy St reet," "I Don't Need Any t hing But You" and "Tomorrow." See Annie at Givens Performing Ar t s Center. Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Call Givens box of f ice at 910-521-6361 for t icket s and informat ion or v isit ht t p://w w w.uncp.edu. Ticket s: $41, $36, $21/$26 A lumni/$16 Children or St udent s/$16 Facult y and St af f/$10 UNCP St udent s. Givens Performing Arts Center Brings Annie to the Stage a STAFF REPORT 910•864•5705 320 N. McPherson Church Road LARGEST SELECTION OF PREMIUM CIGARS IN THE REGION FULL SERVICE BAR • SMOKING LOUNGE LIVE MUSIC EVERY OTHER WEEKEND! ansteads.com Call Keri Dickson at 910.584.4121