‘Leapin’ lizards!’

SOAP LAKE — It’s the hard knock life at the Masquers Theater starting Oct. 18, as “Annie” takes the stage.

The beloved musical set in Depression-era New York follows 11-year-old Annie, played by Carlee Howard, from an orphanage to a mansion, stopping at a shantytown and the White House along the way.   

“It’s a big show,” said director Clifford Bresee. “It’s one of those older musicals that has a lot of music and a big story. It kind of hearkens back to an era when theater wasn’t competing for entertainment so much.” 

The play opens in an orphanage where Annie and a host of other girls live under the gin-sodden and resentful eye of their keeper, Miss Hannigan (Cassi Nelson). When Annie escapes from the orphanage in search of the parents she never knew, she finds herself in a Hooverville, one of the many makeshift homeless camps that sprang up following the economic crash. By the time a police officer brings her back to the orphanage, she’s acquired a mutt named Sandy (Nova, Nelson’s dog). 

Not long after Annie’s return, the orphanage receives a visit from Grace (Jessica Stredwick), the secretary to wealthy tycoon Oliver Warbucks (Jason Noble), who’s looking for an orphan to spend Christmas with Warbucks. Grace picks Annie, and takes her to the Warbucks mansion, where she quickly charms the entire staff as well as their curmudgeonly employer. It’s not long before “Daddy” Warbucks is looking for a way to adopt Annie. 

“(‘Annie’) is a wholesome love story between Annie and Warbucks,” said Noble. “I’m only a grumpy jerk for the first scene. Once Annie melts me, it starts to fade away fast.” 

But Annie still wants her parents, so Warbucks goes on the radio and offers a reward for anyone who can prove they’re her parents. When Miss Hannigan’s brother Rooster (Clark Dalton), a small-time grifter, and his gold-digging girlfriend, Lily (Rebecca Dalton, Clark’s real-life wife), pose as Annie’s parents, it looks like she’s lost her chance at a forever family. But fate — and President Roosevelt (Darryl Pheasant) — have other plans. 

Modern audiences have a hard time relating to the orphanages of the 1930s, Bresee said, but the kernel of the story is timeless. 

“Looking at Annie’s story and the rest of the orphans, how their plight manifests may change, but the reality is marginalized, forgotten people, and the importance of how we can belong in this larger human family,” Bresee said. “Warbucks … comes to realize that for all his grand ambition on how to save a nation, he realizes he can take that same ambition and save a kid.” 

Audiences who are more familiar with the 1982 movie version of “Annie” will notice some differences. Miss Hannigan, Rooster and Lily, played with delicious loathsomeness by Carol Burnett, Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters on film, are more human in the Masquers performance, though no less villainous. 

“I’m a little more stupid Rooster, less street-smart, more just kind of clueless,” said Clark Dalton. “It lends itself more into the way I act.” 

“Lily is a dumb blonde just trying to follow Rooster,” Rebecca Dalton said. “She’s in it for the hustle and doesn’t really have her own ideas. She doesn’t really realize when she’s being made fun of.”

The play touches on some of the politics of the 1930s, with little jabs at Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. In fact, Hoover has a whole song devoted to him: “We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover,” in which down-and-outers express their opinion of him with scathing sarcasm. But the politics are still mostly in good humor, Bresee said, whether in the 1930s or the 2020s. 

“It hopefully makes us all laugh at ourselves,” Bresee said. “Like when Warbucks invites FDR to Christmas dinner, and he looks to Grace and says, ‘Call Arthur Smith and find out what Democrats eat.’ Funny moments like that are apparently timeless because they seem timely.” 

The real stars of the show, Bresee said, are the orphans. The script only names six, but a lot more girls auditioned and Bresee said he took the rest as an ensemble. Originally 20 were cast, he said, but a few dropped out and the orphanage’s population now stands at 16-18. 

“Anything where the kids are on is high-energy,” Clark Dalton said. “That’s where they bring it … They’re overflowing with it. It’s nice, because it kind of brings energy to us too.” 

Clark and Rebecca’s daughter Haley is Duffy, the oldest of the orphans.  

“It’s really fun to do (a play) with the Masquers, because it’s such a fun community to be a part of,” she said. “It’s so supportive.” 

This is Haley’s third production with the Masquers, she said. 

“This is my first show,” said Cambell Carpenter, who plays Kate. “It’s been (chef’s kiss gesture).” 

Pepper, the orphan with a tough and occasionally mean streak, is played by Izzy Delay, who’s doing her fourth musical, she said. 

“I’ve done singing lessons and bullying lessons,” she said. 

Bullying lessons? 

“My mom’s been like poking at me and acting like a sibling, because I’m an only child,” Delay said. “So she has to annoy me to be a bully, so I can bully all these people.” 

“In the first act the kids are on the stage a fair amount, less so in the second act,” Bresee said. “And because this play was written smartly, the kids are part of the finale also. I think that’s what (the audience) will leave with. It’s hard not to be joyous when you have 18 kids on stage just having a really great time and pouring themselves into the story.” 

‘Annie’ 
Oct. 18-Nov. 10
Fridays 7 p.m.
Sat. - Sun. 2 p.m.
Masquers Theater
322 E. Main Ave.
Soap Lake 

Tickets: www.masquers.com  

Shows sell out quickly, so advance purchase is recommended 

    Runaway Annie (Carlee Howard) meets her new friend Sandy in the Masquers production of Annie, which opens Oct. 18. Director Clifford Bresee said he was a little uncertain at first about using a live animal in the play, but castmate Cassi Nelson’s dog Nova has taken to the role well.
  

    Annie (Carlee Howard), left, introduced by Grace (Jessica Stredwick) meets Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks (Jason Noble) for the first time. Noble said he was probably the only man who auditioned for the role who wouldn’t have had to shave his head.
  

    Residents of Hooverville, a homeless camp named for former President Herbert Hoover, sing scathingly about him at the Masquers Theater rehearsal of “Annie.”
  

    Orphanage keeper Miss Hannigan (Cassi Nelson) is dripping with little girls in the Masquers Theater production of “Annie,” opening Oct. 18.