‘Annie’ Is No Orphan to Light Opera Fans

Civic light opera companies from the mountains to the sea thrive on musical chestnuts from the ‘40s and ‘50s. Any show newer than that is a risky calculation.

Then there is “Annie,” currently at the Downey Civic Light Opera, a 1977 Broadway hit that’s as contemporary as it gets on the CLO circuit. Of course, its popularity rests with its Depression-era setting and 1930s optimism. Based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, the show is almost indestructible.

The Downey Civic Light Opera, which celebrates its 40th birthday this fall, has charmingly revived “Annie’s” patch of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” nostalgia.

Beginning with Laura Ware’s mean, hilarious orphanage keeper through fetching Kari D. Pickler’s Annie to Mike Jacobson’s gleaming, bald-pated Daddy Warbucks, the Downey production merrily trips along with the easy, sidewalk confidence of a game of hopscotch--unless you count the rather tinny orchestrations and a very aging, huffing-puffing Sandy as Annie’s lovable “Hooverville” mutt (Tootsie in real life).

Managing a pair of “arfs” at the curtain, Tootsie steals the show despite galumphing about on a bum leg and literally coming out of dog retirement after performing Sandy from Pasadena to La Mirada.

W.C. Fields, of course, warned about the scene-stealing antics of dogs and children, which makes “Annie” the veritable war zone of American musicals.

That’s what makes orphan mistress Ware’s tippling, terrorizing Miss Hannigan (created by Dorothy Loudon on Broadway and later by Carol Burnett in the otherwise ponderous ’82 movie version) and Pickler’s luminous, pearly voiced Annie such accomplishments. Pickler, who’s 14, is favored with an unusually grown-up face, turning her 11-year old, round-faced comic strip character into a Beverly Hills-looking Annie for the ‘90s--certainly an Annie you’ve never quite seen before.

Here’s a show, (book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin) that often seems more simple than Hal Gray’s original strip. That’s part of its pleasure. The other part, under George Strattan’s solid direction, is the essentially unsentimental nature of the show, a no-nonsense approach that was initially produced and largely developed by Mike Nichols, of all people.

We’re in updated Dickens’ country--a kind of reverse “Oliver Twist,” where a waif finds love and happiness with a munitions maker (Warbucks) in a towering New York mansion full of green-vested servants who break into songs like “You Won’t Be an Orphan for Long.” (The flavorful sets and costumes are pickups and rentals from surrounding theatrical service companies and they effectively mirror the original Broadway designs).

The knockout musical numbers are “Tomorrow” (in which Annie encourages FDR’s weary Cabinet to look to the future), “Hard-Knock Life” (featuring eight raggedy orphan girls) and the infectious “Easy Street” (in which a devious couple ripely played by Mark Clark and Kimberly Clark masquerade as Annie’s parents).

Contributing vivid supporting portraits are Fred Derbyshire’s wheelchair-bound FDR with his characteristically pointed spear of a cigarette holder, and Christine Martin’s serenely understated Warbucks’ secretary who invites Annie to the billionaire’s home, setting the plot in motion.

Ironically, shantytown depictions of the ‘30s homeless--nicely offset by Annie’s wide-eyed innocence--unexpectedly serve up unnerving reminders of contemporary, down-and-out Los Angeles.

“Annie,” Downey Civic Light Opera, 8435 Firestone Blvd., Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday matinees, 2:30 p.m. Through March 6. $20-$24. (310) 923-1714.