Annie Live!

Aside from some excellent dancers, especially those young girls doing leaps and walk-overs, I didn't think much of this. It felt like a high school production. Did we really need 4 productions of Annie. I'd love for them to do Mame with Cher. Now that would be something to see.

Started off rather odd,with many random girls & Annie/orphans emerging? .. Did they win a contest or not make the cut,so they got a few minutes to shine?

Could of started with Annie on the roof top,as lights go up singing versus all that led up to her doing that.

Celina wasn't bad as this,version Annie but seen better.

The orphans danced & sang their hearts out,one of the many positives.

Taraji was over the top annoying,which was insulting to that character part.

Rooster & Lily,not really the best either.. Felt cartoon-ish.

Harry & his bald head,sadly that wasn't the biggest violation of this musical.

Enjoyed many parts with Nicole on stage but,perhaps was more from background actors/dancers performances around her.

Granted never seen the broadway musical of this to compare,but just going off the movie.. So many little things got left out or even rushed,it started adding up where it lost charm or attempting to have some left anyway.

Felt so politically correct,etc.. It's like we've become afraid of,any honest authenticity.

They should of did all commercials not just for Wendy's,in a vintage tv/radio style ad.

The toy commercials especially one was cute,but felt sale motivated with Christmas instead.

There was some decent dancing & singing,the dog was cute for his brief appearances.

Staging & props,felt cheap & had little effort in places.. Why not use the same locations from previous productions,like Hairspray or Grease?.. Would of made the orphanage,mansion,streets & more look better.. After all this was no school play with limited funds,but a major network putting it on.

Costumes,hair & make-up was ok.

Would I watch a replay? Nope! Will just go watch the movie,instead.

First complaint is that in the comic strip upon which the musical is based, none of the characters had eyeballs, yet here, they all did. Why couldn't the producers come up with something for actors with eyeballs, instead of...

If you really think the point of the story has anything to do with Annie's hair or skin color, I feel very sorry for you.

I think the "over the top" interpretation. Of Miss Hannigan started with Carol Burnett. It's a little much for me, but that's just a matter of taste. (Hey, for me, one of the highlights was catching the stagehands skirt across the back of stage--different strokes for different folks.)

Different versions have accented different parts of the story; this is hardly my favorite. More fleshing out of the plot to kidnap Annie to get the money and Miss Hannigan's sudden act of conscience would bring more sense to the story.

All that said, it does project the optimism that's the point of the play. It's not that hard to sit back and enjoy (unless you rely on the captioning, which, done live, rather than from the script, was late, and often truncated).

What's not to hate?

Bad singing, bad acting, bad casting, bad sound, bad makeup (a rubber skullcap? Really), and bad directing make this a living horror.

The high notes sounded more like squealing than singing. It's sad to think that people will think of this production as the definitive ANNIE without ever having seen the 1982 film version.

This Annie is way to big and old looking. BLEH.

I highly enjoyed watching the bearded guy show up in almost every scene in a different role. Also this was one of the best live productions that NBC has done.