STAGE REVIEW : Crowd-Pleasing ‘Annie’ Sequel Lights Up Pantages Theatre

Seeing “Annie Warbucks” for the second time in three months, as it swings back through Southern California on its way to greater fame and fortune, doesn’t alter one’s opinion of it as a hummable, untaxing, crowd-pleasing sequel to the 1977 hit “Annie.”

Au contraire . The show, seen Tuesday at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, has dropped some fat since its mid-August appearance in San Bernardino and is the fitter for it. Any connection it still bears to hapless “Annie II,” the aborted 1989 sequel to “Annie”--of which “Warbucks,” its creators say, is a complete overhaul--should no longer hurt it.

“Warbucks,” presented here by the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, sticks firmly to the game plan that made the original “Annie” popular. It has a lilting-to-rousing Charles Strouse score, with singable, grab-’em-by-the-heartstrings lyrics by Martin Charnin (who also directs) and one stirring ballad, “Love,” destined for the hyperventilating success of “Annie’s” “Tomorrow.”

It also has a foolish fairy tale of a book by Thomas Meehan that contains enough red-white-and-blue to appeal without cloying, and enough nonpartisan political jokes to achieve the impossible: offend no one, amuse everyone.

And it has some continuing characters: Annie’s dog Sandy, her fellow orphans, Daddy Warbucks’ secretary Grace Farrell (Marguerite MacIntyre), his butler Drake (Harvey Evans), housekeeper Mrs. Pugh (Carol Woodbury) and his good friend President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (played by Raymond Thorne who created the role in the original “Annie”).

“Warbucks” begins where “Annie” left off, with the adoption proceedings and the song--”A New Deal for Christmas”--that officially gave Annie a last name. But a hostile New York City commissioner from Child Welfare named Harriet Stark (Alene Robertson) rescinds the adoption pronto, unless Daddy Warbucks (Harve Presnell) can come up with a Mommie for his newly adopted daughter in 60 days or fewer.

The rest of the show is devoted to the search by a reluctant Warbucks for a wife, an Annie (Lauren Gaffney) who has her own ideas about whom he should marry, and a nasty plan by some nasty people to marry him off for his money.

Plots and subplots keep us busy watching and a formerly muddled ending has been sufficiently streamlined and cleaned up since August to no longer pose a threat.

Gone from the show are a couple of expendable scenes and at least two expendable songs. Some numbers have been shifted (sometimes in locale as well), one new song added (“There’s Not a Lot a Kid Can Do”) and the finale, compressed and rethought, now smartly relies on a rousing reprise of “Love” to send us out humming.

“Warbucks” benefits from this good work and while it can still stand to lose some length, this is less pressing than it was.

The performers seem comfortably settled in their roles, with the perky Gaffney a bright, no-nonsense Annie, Presnell a gentle giant with a booming voice as Warbucks, and the stomping Robertson a bellowing hoot as the Miss-Hanniganish commissioner.

Cass Morgan’s mysterious Mrs. Kelly and MacIntyre’s graceful secretary Farrell contribute nicely to the nuances of show. But it’s that gaggle of take-charge orphans--Kathryn Zaremba, Jeanette Brox, Alexis Dale Fabricant, Missy Goldberg, Christine Flores and tiny Lindsay Ridgeway--who steal our hearts as they kick up their heels in Peter Gennaro’s impudently witty choreography.

Leaving some of the best for last, M.W. Reid, Ellia English and young LaShayla Logan have some of “Warbucks’ ” finest scenes as a family of Tennessee sharecroppers who set Annie straight and are handsomely rewarded for their pains. English’s powerful singing is the hottest thing in this show, and former flirtations with a shuffling black stereotype mercifully have been much softened.

The Ming Cho Lee sets, Garland Riddle costumes, Ken Billington lights and Harold Wheeler orchestrations are as classy as ever, but Tony Meola’s sound too frequently allows the orchestra at the Pantages to overpower the overmiked singers. Adjustments, please!

The show itself, on the other hand, is now in much better shape. Its quality ingredients show a healthy self-respect that translates into respect for the audience. A little more nipping and tucking won’t hurt, certainly, but if you liked that happy brand of escapist family fare that was “Annie,” you may well find “Annie Warbucks” as much fun. Or more.

* “Annie Warbucks,” Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $20.50-$40; (213) 480-3232. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Lauren Gaffney: Annie Warbucks

Harve Presnell: Oliver Warbucks

Marguerite MacIntyre: Grace Farrell

Harvey Evans: Drake

Carol Woodbury: Mrs. Pugh

Joel Hatch: Simon Whitehead

Alene Robertson: Commissioner Harriet Stark

Cass Morgan: Mrs. Kelly

Ellia English: Ella Paterson

M.W. Reid Alvin: T. Paterson

LaShayla Logan: C.G. Paterson

Raymond Thorne: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Lindsay Ridgeway, Christine Flores, Kathryn Zaremba, Jeanette Brox, Alexis Dale Fabricant, Missy GoldbergOrphans

Cindy: Sandy

Jon Rider, Erick Devine, Trisha Gorman, Lizanne Schader, Charles Douglass, Anita Jackson, Nancy Sinclair, Paul Ainsley Ensemble.

A presentation of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, developed in co-operation with members of the National Alliance of Musical Theater Producers. Book Thomas Meehan. Music Charles Strouse. Lyrics Martin Charnin. Director Martin Charnin. Choreographer Peter Gennaro. Assistant choreographer Patti Mariano. Sets Ming Cho Lee. Lights Ken Billington. Costumes Garland Riddle. Wigs Rick Geyer. Sound Tony Meola. Musical director-conductor Keith Levenson. Orchestrations Harold Wheeler. Production stage manager Jeffrey M. Markowitz. Stage manager Theresa A. Cranshaw.