The musical Annie, written by Thomas Meehan and Charlie Strouse in 1977, is one of the most popular musicals in the world and has been performed on Broadway multiple times. One of the most famous pop stars, Ariana Grande, started out her singing career by being Annie in her local school play. In the musical, Annie, a fiery young orphan with a vivid personality, grows up in a lonely orphanage, but still manages to find her way in life. Annie spends eleven years of her life in poor conditions under the custody of Agatha Hannigan. During the famous song “It’s a Hard-Knock life,” Annie and her fellow orphans describe the conditions they are in and how they get treated by Ms. Hannigan. Ms. Hannigan constantly wakes up the orphans drunk and threatens to physically abuse them, and when Mr.Warbucks wants to adopt Annie, because of her joyous personalilty, she refuses. Throughout the musical Annie expresses her deep longing for her lost parents; she never gives up on them and hopes that they will come to find her someday. Her dreams partially come true as a millionaire, Oliver Warbucks, takes her out of the orphanage to live in his mansion with him. Annie goes from living in extreme poverty to having every single one of her wishes immediately fulfilled.
Although Annie had all she ever wanted at Warbucks’ house, she still desperately wanted to find out about her past and find her parents. Even though Warbucks grew to love Annie and viewed her as his own child, he supports her wishes and assists her in seeking her parents. He sets up a reward that would be given to anyone that could come and prove to be Annie’s parents. Because of the great money award, many couples came pretending to be Annie’s parents, but thankfully Annie and Warbucks didn’t believe any of them. Later on in the musical, Ms. Hannigan’s brother, Daniel Francis “Rooster” Hannigan, and his girlfriend convince Warbucks that Annie is their daughter and proceed to take her away from him. Annie’s life is put into great danger because of Rooster Hannigan, but in the end, she finds happiness and overcomes her hardships in her life.
Overall, the musical Annie teaches its viewers many important life lessons. The most crucial life lesson that Annie and Mr. Warbucks teaches their audience is that family and friendship is the most important part of life and that a person should never give up their family. Annie demonstrates a great role model for young girls because she is a loyal friend and truly embodies resilience.
Works Cited:
Christophersmith. “CCS to Present Annie: The Musical – the Andalusia Star.” News, 30 Sept. 2019, https://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2019/10/01/ccs-to-present-annie-the-musical/.