STAGE REVIEW : A Sprightly Annie’s Back in ‘Warbucks’

Never underestimate the persistence of Little Orphan Annie. Or her resourcefulness.

The spunky redhead has returned in “Annie Warbucks,” the sequel to the 1977 hit “Annie,” making its California debut at the California Theatre of Performing Arts. Despite the show’s checkered past as the disastrous “Annie II” (pulled from 1989 tryouts by its creative team), this kid doesn’t take no for an answer. Annie’s back, and while “Warbucks” can still use a bunch of adjustments--something Thomas Meehan (book), Charles Strouse (music) and Martin Charnin (lyrics and staging) are in California to provide--it looks like the kid has legs.

The new title is more than a repudiation of the ill-fated “Annie II.” Its creators claim the current crowd-pleaser constitutes a major rewrite and, even without having seen the original, one is in inclined to believe them.

“Warbucks” breaks no new ground. In fact, it seems determined to mine the formula of its previous success and come up with the same kind of silly but peppery book, laced with declamatory, eminently singable songs. Beyond Annie, her dog Sandy and her Daddy Warbucks, there is a Miss Hannigan substitute and some familiar characters: Annie’s fellow orphans, secretary Grace Farrell, the butler Drake, the housekeeper Mrs. Pugh and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (The latter is played by Raymond Thorne, the only holdover from the original “Annie” Broadway cast.)

“Warbucks” begins where “Annie” ends, with the adoption ceremony (as Annie becomes Daddy Warbucks’ official daughter) and the song that marked the event: “A New Deal for Christmas.” But by Scene III the adoption has been rescinded by a vile New York City commissioner named Harriet Stark (Alene Robertson) who tells Oliver Warbucks he must marry a proper mother for Annie within 60 days, or lose her forever.

And we’re off. You can imagine some of the complications. This a very tall, very American story, with great, classy sets by Ming Cho Lee, elegant costumes by Garland W. Riddle, fine musical direction by Keith Levenson (who also conducts) and lively orchestrations by Harold Wheeler.

The book is no less simplistic than the one for “Annie,” although it is needlessly padded and ties itself into too many knots that it has trouble untying at the end. The result is a finale of flurried revelations and one silly confrontation at gunpoint. Never mind that President Roosevelt is sitting helplessly in his wheel-chair in the line of fire, without a single Secret Service man in sight and no one else showing the slightest concern. It is only the most glaring thing wrong with an ending that simply tries to catch up to too much.

“Warbucks” should lose 30 minutes and can do it in several places. One is a scene at the movies with a prospective wife, which interrupts an already uncertain flow. Another is Scene II, when Annie’s making a Valentine for Daddy. The “My Valentine” song can go too. Sweet, but hardly compelling.

In general, it is more a matter of compressing than eliminating scenes and a need to thin out the songs. They work, but there are too many. Do we really need to hear Daddy Warbucks bemoaning his age in “A Younger Man” immediately after he, Annie and the household staff have just outlined the kind of wife he should have in “That’s the Kind of Woman”? “All Dolled Up,” the show’s biggest production number, packs three other songs but not much urgency. One at least, “It Would Have Been Wonderful,” is expendable.

On the plus side (many pluses), we have Annie’s wise and wistful “Changes,” Mrs. Kelly’s “But You Go On” (the “I’m Still Here” of this musical), the beautiful, rousing “Love” (the “Tomorrow” of this musical) and a grand little number with the singing and dancing orphans called “The Other Woman.”

There is a smattering of timely political jokes (what happens to those when the elections are over?) and big, winning performances from Harve Presnell as Daddy Warbucks and sprightly, no-nonsense Lauren Gaffney as the ubiquitous Annie, whose disposition and dress never change.

Notable in the cast are comedian Robertson as the wretched Commissioner Stark, willowy Marguerite MacIntyre as Grace Farrell, Cass Morgan as mysterious Mrs. Kelly, contender for the job of wife, and especially Ellia English and M. W. Reid as Ella and Alvin Paterson, the Southern sharecroppers who set a momentarily confused Annie straight.

The direction given Reid flirts perilously close in places to the worst kind of shuffling black stereotype. And then there is the matter of that overwrought ending. Yes, the show needs adjustment and will undergo some as it moves through Seattle (Sept. 2-20), Houston (Sept. 24-Oct. 11), San Diego (Starlight Bowl, Oct. 14-25) and Los Angeles (Pantages, Oct. 27-Nov. 22) on its proverbial way to Broadway. But the good news is that there’s nothing that can’t be fixed, and rather easily.

Lauren Gaffney: Annie

Sandy: Chelsea

Harve Presnell: Oliver (Daddy) Warbucks

Alene Robertson: Commissioner Harriet Stark

Marguerite MacIntyre: Grace Farrell

Joel Hatch: Simon Whitehead

Raymond Thorne: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

M. W. Reid: Alvin T. Paterson

Ellia English: Ella Paterson

LaShayla Logan: C. G. Paterson

Lindsay Ridgeway, Catherine Zaremba, Jeanette Brox, Alexis Dale Fabricant, Missy Goldberg, Christine Flores: Orphans

Cass Morgan: Mrs. Sheila Kelly

Harvey Evans: Drake

Carol Woodbury: Mrs. Pugh

Paul Ainsley, Edward Conery, Erick Devine, Charles Douglass, Trisha Gorman, Anita Jackson, Lizanne Schader, Nancy Sinclair: Ensemble

A presentation of San Bernardino Civic Light Opera Assn., developed in co-operation with members of the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers. Director Martin Charnin. Book Thomas Meehan. Music Charles Strouse. Lyrics Martin Charnin. Sets Ming Cho Lee. Lights Ken Billington. Costumes Garland W. Riddle. Sound Tony Meola. Musical director/Conductor Keith Levenson. Orchestrations Harold Wheeler. Choreographer Peter Gennaro. Production stage manager Randy William Charnin.