For our birthdays this year, Ron and I decided not to buy each other anything, considering we were both moving over the ocean soon and adding to the luggage just didn’t seem like a good idea. So, instead, I bought Ron a 2-4 for his birthday celebration back in Canada and he (and Darrell) gave me the promise of something awesome once we actually got to England.

Well, the time has come. Ron and Darrell got me tickets to see Annie! My favourite movie, on stage, in my city! I invited Faith to come with me, because Ron’s only stipulation upon giving me two tickets was that I not take him with me. Faith’s roommate Sophie also wanted to come. So, on Tuesday, November 3, the three of us set off together to go to the theatre. Once we got close we could pretty much tell who else was going to the show. There were groups of one or two mums and several little girls all over the street. Another clue was that all the kids were wearing pajamas. The woman who sold us the tickets told us that Tuesday night performances are pajama nights and they give out milk and cookies at intermission. We opted not to wear PJs, however, but Sophie managed to convince the usher to give her milk and cookies even though it was just supposed to be for the kids.

The show was great, the performances were great, the kids were adorable! There were some new songs that I’d never heard (meaning they aren’t in the movie version), like one called “We’d Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover” sung by a cast of homeless adults, suffering from the Depression. Another difference was that they conveniently wrote Sandy out of most of the play with a “but the dog got away” line. I imagine it’s hard to get a dog to be consistent on stage, so I can see why they did that, but the dog they had looked just like the movie dog, so I was sad he wasn’t in more of the show. And finally, the biggest difference would probably have to be the fact that they cut out the dramatic/action part. In the film, when Rooster, Lilly, and Ms. Hannigan plot to kidnap Annie and claim Warbucks’ reward money action ensues when Annie escapes their custody and (for some reason) races up an elevated train bridge to a dangerous, if not obvious, dead end. And then she is rescued by Punjab in a helicopter – it’s all very dramatic and exciting. I thought they might do some sort of chase scene and have the helicopter off stage or a silhouette or something, they didn’t. They just cut that whole storyline out. After Rooster and Lilly, dressed as the Mudges, came to say they were Annie’s parents they left a bad feeling with Grace and Warbucks so they got the FBI to investigate them. The next day when the Mudges came back to the mansion to get Annie and the cheque Warbucks exposed them by handing them a cheque addressed to “The Jig is Up” – the clever fool. Anyway, Annie was never in danger and they sang the finale song “I Don’t Need Anything But You” – which didn’t make entire sense as there is a line that goes “Yesterday was plain awful/You can say that again/Yesterday was plain awful, but that’s not now, that’s then!” – and nothing awful actually happened, so… They also sang the song “Tomorrow” in every scene. But, like I said, the performances were great and the company was great. Even the little kids tried putting on their best New York accent, which you could tell was difficult because they would slip back into English accents every once and a while. The show had a cast of 40 from the West End (London’s Broadway).

The Grand Opera House is putting on Cabaret this month as well and we are thinking of going to see that, too. Going to the theatre might become my new hobby.