Matthew Murray takes a look at Annie:
Stepping into the Kings Theatre in Flatbush is like being catapulted back 80 years. The enormous (nearly 4,000-seat) venue, designed in French baroque style complete with bold statuary and swirling pillars, opened as a movie house in 1929 and closed down in 1977. It reopened in January after a stem-to-stern renovation, and stands as a stalwart reminder of how the Great Depression and 1970s pragmatism continue to influence our lives. All of which makes it an oddly perfect venue for the tour of Annie that is playing there through Sunday.
After all, the 1977 musical, which has a book by Thomas Meehan, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and music by Charles Strouse, is set during the Depression, and the classic characters of Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie comic strip are forever trumpeting (and, sometimes, struggling against) the spirit of optimism that was a much-needed balm during the malaise-choked Jimmy Carter era. The synchronicity is solid and, within an admitted set of restrictions and with a wisp of an exception or two, so is this production. . . . |
