Little Orphan Annie: From Comic Strip to Musical Comedy by Ed Real

When ANNIE opened on Broadway in 1977, it was thought to be an overnight sensation. Indeed, this charmingly up-beat tale of a plucky young heroine who faces multitudes of adversities with an ever-present, effervescent optimism, and with the companionship of a scruffy but raffish dog and a rich-as-Croesus adoptive father (a hard-nosed businessman with the heart of a marshmallow) seemed to have all the elements of a mega-hit musical, including a song that quickly became a ubiquitous anthem of hope and joy. It is difficult, now, for us to accept the fact that this overnight sensation in fact required five years in the making, largely because few people in the theater business saw much potential in the project.

ANNIE, the musical, was conceived in 1971 when Broadway lyricist Martin Charnin was Christmas shopping in a Manhattan book store. He found a copy of the comic-strip collection, LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE: HER LIFE AND HARD TIMES, which he thought would be a perfect gift for a friend who was a pop-culture fanatic. But Charnin ended up keeping the book for himself, for it had given him the germ of an idea for a musical--a show that would essentially be a statement about the contemporary national mood, which was not especially rosy. For in the early 1970's the country was involved in a protracted war, was experiencing an economic recession, and was becoming distrustful and even doubtful about the ability and motives of government leaders. In a sense, ANNIE, like the musical CHICAGO which preceded it by two years, was a product of the Watergate era.

But what a difference there was between the two shows: CHICAGO was the cynic's response; ANNIE took the brighter view. In the Kander/Ebb/Fosse show, criminal molls of the 1920's Roxie and Velma tell us "In fifty years or so/It's gonna change you know," and we know full well that it won't. In ANNIE, the orphan heroine really believes that "The Sun will Come Out Tomorrow," and she makes us believe it too.

Charnin's vision for the show was not only not immediately attractive to producers, who repeatedly turned down the concept over the next few years, it was even a hard sell to associates whose collaboration he sought. When he pitched the idea to the eventual book writer, Thomas Meehan's initial reaction was "Ughhh, I hate it." Finally, Meehan and composer Charles Strouse were brought on board for the project, and about four years later the new work finally got a staging at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House, where public reaction was lackluster. Clearly more work was needed.

What was the sticking point? Surprisingly, it was the source material. Probably very few people today remember the tone of the Orphan Annie comic strip, which was a regular feature in newspapers for almost fifty years, beginning in the 1920's. Ethan Mordden, who had chronicled the history of American musical theater, has this to say regarding ANNIE:

"By now, most American's probably take the musical's version of Gray's characters as authentic. . .In fact, the world that Gray created is nothing like this at all, and one wonders what musical Charnin had in mind at first. For it appears that somewhere along the way, the material. . .was softened-arguably vandalized. Famously far to the right in his politics, Gray was more precisely a believer in individualist self-reliance. . . His view of human nature is misanthropic; the few well-intentioned people are assailed on all sides by criminals, hypocrites and incompetents. In fact as Gray sees it, law-abiding people cannot depend on the state for justice, and when under attack, must get justice for themselves." In one famous episode of the comic strip, Daddy Warbucks had his henchmen "dispose" of some villains rather than call the police. And furthermore, Gray detested Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.

So the show that originally opened at the Goodspeed still reflected some of this darker tone of the source material. It stood, according to Mordden, "somewhere between Harold Gray and musical comedy." Mike Nichols was in the audience at Goodspeed, and he saw enough potential in the material to produce the show in New York, after sufficient alteration. Nichols doctoring of the material-making it a show about the girl and not the depression-was so extensive that there was said to be an offer to make him the director of record, but he declined the billing. (Interestingly, that year ANNIE didn't win a Tony for directing, but Mike Nichols did get two nominations for directing dramas).

The revised ANNIE became a triumph, winning Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actress, Choreography, Book, and Costume Design. And it anchored an otherwise indifferent season-competitors among musicals that year included I LOVE MY WIFE, THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, HAPPY END, SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, and YOUR ARMS TOO SHORT TO BOX WITH GOD.

Musical Theater and the Funny Papers

Comic strips-or "the funny papers" as they were called by many generations of newspaper readers-may be diminishing as an element of pop culture even more rapidly than the newspapers that gave them a home, but "sequential art," as some prefer to call it, lives on, and now we even have graphic novels. In the 1920's, New York's Mayor Laguardia considered the comics to be so important to his constituents that he took to reading them on the radio when there was a newspaper strike-an event that was later included as a scene in the 1960 musical FIORELLO! Of course the terms "comic strip" and "funny papers" were never very accurate, for they referred to creations that might be comedic, but also to continuing story lines that might be adventure (PRINCE VALIANT), fantasy detective story (DICK TRACY), or even soap opera (Mary Worth). Naturally one pop culture medium, if popular enough, is likely to influence another-and so it is with musical theater. ANNIE may be the most successful pairing of the two genres, but the interaction of musical comedy and the "funny papers" has a long history.

The comics connection goes as far back as 1906, when there was a musical entertainment called THE FOXY GRANDPA in New York. There were also a series of MUTT AND JEFF shows that toured the country in the early 20th Century. Irving Berlin included a song called "The Funnies" in his topical revue AS THOUSANDS CHEER. From the late 1950's onward there have been several musicals derived entirely from the strips. Usually the sources, like ANNIE, were distinguished by their political content.

Perhaps the most successful of the comic strip musicals prior to ANNIE was L'IL ABNER, from the long running cartoon by Al Capp. Unlike Harold Gray, Al Capp was not consistent in his political views. In the conservative 1950's when the musical version appeared, Capp was a liberal. In the 1960's when a more liberal political outlook prevailed, Capp became extremely conservative. Capp had a fairly active hand in creating the musical-indeed, according to Edie Adams who played Daisy Mae, he generally had active hands. Because the musical was fairly topical in its time-dealing with industrialists very much like Eisenhower's Defense Secretary, the show seldom is seen now. It also displays a sexist attitude toward women, with characters like Stupefying Jones and Appassionata von Climax. But it was an entertaining and successful fifties musical by Gene dePaul and Johnny Mercer, with athletic choreography by Michael Kidd. It ran for 693 performances.

In 1966 the comics returned to Broadway in the form of IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S SUPERMAN. The score was by ANNIE's composer Charles Strouse, and the director was Hal Prince. Like LI'L ABNER, the plot was about scientists gone bad. Unlike ABNER, its good reviews did not translate into a lengthy run. After failing to catch on with the playgoers, SUPERMAN closed after 129 performances. There have been recent concert revivals in Los Angeles and New York, both featuring Cheyenne Jackson, the star of the current FINIAN'S RAINBOW, as Superman.

Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts came to the stage in 1967 in a musical by Clark Gesner entitled YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. The show was a great hit off Broadway, running 1957 performances, and it has had continuing success in regional theater ever since. But two attempts to revive it on Broadway failed. In 1982 there was a sequel called SNOOPY!!! THE MUSICAL, which featured Lorna Luft as Peppermint Patty. In spite of three exclamation marks in the title, it ran only 152 performances off Broadway.

The popular Doonesbury got it's own musical in 1983. The sometimes controversial strip's creator, Garry Trudeau created the book and lyrics, and Elizabeth Swados composed the music for the adaptation, which focused on the strip's major characters who finally enter the workplace after 10 years as perpetual students and communal dwellers. DOONESBURY: THE MUSICAL as an off Broadway show ran 104 performances.

Even regional cartoon strips have had their day on stage. KUDZU was based on a comic strip popular largely in the South in the 1980's (it came to an abrupt end when creator Doug Marlette was killed in an auto accident). Collaborators Jay Harrick and Bland Simpson of the band Red Clay Ramblers (who were featured in Sam Shepard's A LIE OF THE MIND) put together this tale of a Japanese industrialist attempting to build the world's largest factory manufacturing American flags in the rural South. The show, like its source has found an audience mostly in southern theaters.

Stephen Sondheim hasn't resorted to the comics for a stage musical yet, but he did contribute the songs for the film version of DICK TRACY, for which he won an Oscar for best song, "Sooner or Later."

The comics may be less important to pop culture than they used to be-or perhaps they are just evolving into new forms-but the tendency to use them in musical theater continues. Looking at a list of proposed New York musicals in Playbill Magazine, one can find three waiting in the wings: THE ADDAMS FAMILY, SPIDERMAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, and BETTY BOOP.