Easy Street: TCR's 'Annie' ready to escape hard-knock life for lap of luxury

By Diana Nollen

CEDAR RAPIDS - When a heart of gold melts a heart of cold, both get a new deal for Christmas.

Little Orphan Annie is back, working her charms on stodgy bachelor billionaire Oliver Warbucks through Theatre Cedar Rapids.

The spunky holiday musical opens [Note] Nov. 20 [/NOTE] Friday and plays through Dec. 6 at TCR Lindale, 4444 First Ave. NE.

It's the third time the community theater troupe has staged the show, after mounting it in 1984 at the Paramount Theatre and in 1990 at Theatre Cedar Rapids.

The amateur troupe originally had “Annie” on last year's schedule, but couldn't secure the rights when a professional production was slated for the Broadway at the Paramount series. Then the 2008 floods came and wiped away both downtown stages.

So Theatre Cedar Rapids moved to its temporary site near Lindale Mall and put the sunny show about happy endings back on its season.

 “One of the big challenges the past year and a half has been staging shows appropriate for TCR Lindale,” says managing director Casey Prince, 32, of Cedar Rapids, who is directing “Annie.” “I would love to get to do the show downtown. It's hard not to be able to fly in scenery for the mansion.

 “The challenge is making this a fun volunteer community opportunity, even though the scope is so big at a time of year when everybody is slammed busy. H1N1 went through (the cast), too, so hopefully that's out of our system.”

The spirit of optimism that fuels the theater troupe is mirrored in the show, based on a Depression-era comic strip about a wide-eyed orphan. In the musical, she's invited to spend the holidays in a glorious mansion and ends up spreading her cheer to FDR and his down-in-the-dumps Cabinet. Veteran actor Gene Whiteman of Cedar Rapids has played the presidential role in all three local productions.

 “If you took all of the neat things about (the story), piled them up together, you'd come up with one central thing” that explains the show's lasting appeal, Prince says. “The enduring flame of human spirit in Annie.”

Other factors include “the warmth and generosity that comes out of Warbucks, who previously was a cold and calculated man; the caring for children and family and the impact that kind of environment can support; and the political overtones - the ideas of hope and opportunity for everyone again,” Prince says.

 “People are in love with the music,” he adds. “As far as musical scripts go, it's actually a really nice script.

 “But what I always come back to, that I connect the most with, is the care of children that I think is so heartwarming, and how a child can inspire many with her simple, hopeful ideas. She's not old enough to be jaded.”

Out of 170 girls who auditioned for the coveted title role, sixth grader Michelle Lindhart, 12, of Williamsburg, rose right to the top.

 “I saw Annie just exploding out of her,” Prince says. “She is a total optimist, seemingly can get along with and talk to anyone, has the uncanny ability to make anyone around her smile. And she has pipes! She's a very honest, giving little girl who can sing and dance for days and is just a delight to be around. I couldn't believe what I was seeing in auditions. ... (She's) a firecracker with a lot of personality for her age.”

It's a dream come true for the pint-size actress now sporting an auburn tint on her blond locks.

 “Since I was about 3 I've always wanted to be in ‘Annie,'” she says. Now that she's in the show, she describes the whole experience as “amazing, cool, kind of unbelievable.”

She's also excited about her sidekick cast as Sandy: a goldendoodle named Hinkel, belonging to Becky and Norm Anderson of Cedar Rapids. It was “love at first sight” for the pair at auditions, Prince says.

Lindhart echoes that sentiment.

 “He's awesome and adorable,” she says. “He just sat down and started leaning on me. He loves cuddling - he's just a big baby - and very obedient. I started singing to him and he just loves it.”

Jonathan Swenson, 43, of Marion, is getting a kick out of stepping into the billionaire's shoes as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

 “It's fun to see him turn from a rough, tough big guy to a big softy,” says Swenson, worship arts pastor at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Marion. A father of two teenage daughters, he used to sing the Warbucks-Annie song “I Don't Need Anything But You” with his girls when they were younger.

 “This allows me to go back a few years and relish those moments again,” he says.

He didn't mind shaving his head for the role, either.

 “A. I'm an actor. B. I didn't want to wear a skullcap that doesn't look real. C. The confirmation kids (at his church) had a food scavenger hunt for the food shelf, and the winning team got to shave my head.”

He says he's “having a blast” with the show.

 “It's a good, old-fashioned, feel-good musical. It's so much fun, I feel like I'm playing. It's more touching than I thought it would be and more timely than I realized, with the economy.

 “Obviously, between the flood and the economy, our community has been going through a lot, so the song ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow' seems quite appropriate for the message of hope that people need to hear right now.”

ARTS EXTRAInformation: www.theatrecr.org

What: “Annie,” family musical staged by Theatre Cedar Rapids

Where: TCR Lindale, 4444 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids

When: Nov. 20 to Dec. 6; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $20 and $25 adults; $15 youths ages 5 through college; in advance at the Grant Wood House, 800 Second Ave. SE, (319) 366-8591 or www.theatrecr.org $12 rush tickets 30 minutes before curtain at the theater, if seats available

Thanksgiving special: Donate one package of size 4 and 5 diapers for Waypoint Services and get one free ticket to the Nov. 26 show. Tickets/donations must be exchanged no later than Nov. 24, in person only, at TCR's temporary box office, 800 Second Ave. SE.