Mike Nichols and the original ANNIE

Dorothy Loudon

And then he directed it.

A long time ago, I was involved with a new musical that was in trouble for many reasons, but one big problem was the inexperienced director. So the producers brought in their old friend Martin Charnin to have a look. He had a lot of questions and criticisms, all valid, but then, when the producers hired him to replace the director, he had no idea how to fix anything.

Lesson learned: it's easy to say what's wrong but hard to say how to make it right.

[quote] it's easy to say what's wrong

The great William Wyler often needed something bad in order to realise what was good.

He liked to adapt things from other sources. And he liked to get the performers to do things over and over to make it easier to see what works and what doesn't.

It's weird to think of anyone approving the song "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long" as the closing for the first act.

Did he change the script or score?

Didn't fire the original Annie and put the incredible belter Andrea McCardle in the lead?

There were many cast members replaced in the move from Goodspeed to Broadway, not just the Annie. The designers were also replaced.

I heard he overhauled the entire structure and plot. True?

I thought he had very little to do with it other then lending his name.

He fired Helen Lawson.

This is an interesting article (filled with typos). From it we glean the following:

-the original Annie was too soft and not believable as the scrappy, tough girl from the comics, so she was relegated to understudy and Andrea McCardle, who had been playing Pepper, was put in as Annie. This happened a week into the Goodspeed run. Must have been horrible for the original kid!

-the original Hannigan was too mean and not funny, so she was recast.

-the plot was revised. Apparently during the Goodspeed run; someone had the epiphany that it should be about Annie trying to find her parents. WTF was the original about if not Annie trying to find her parents? This seems to indicate that significant aspects of the plot were adjusted at Goodspeed.

There's a big new bio of Mike Nichols by Mark Harris (husband of Tony Kushner) coming out very soon. Apparently, it doesn't discuss Mike's bisexuality (Harris is a close friend to Diane Sawyer) but perhaps it will reveal Mike's involvement with Annie.

Whatever they did, by the time it arrived on B'way it worked like a Swiss watch.

Would it be safe to say it was the last old style B'way book musical?

[quote] Would it be safe to say it was the last old style B'way book musical?

I've always thought of it as such.

It's also the last Broadway score I remember that had one of almost each kind of typical song from the old style of Broadway musicals: the big curtain raiser ("It's a Hard-knock Life"), the "I want" song ("Maybe"), the song that introduces a huge number of characters ("I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here"), the big celebratory song for the entire ensemble ("NYC"), the stately march ("You Won't Be an Orphan for Long"), the second act curtain-raiser "(You're Never Fully Dressed without a Smile"), the Jerry Herman-styled celebration of how fabulous the heroine of the title is ("Annie"), the holiday song ("A New Deal for Christmas"), etc.

I have the deluxe version of the Broadway soundtrack which has bonus tracks that are the composers rough drafts for songs that didn't make the final cut, and they are really bad

Didn’t he add that whole hard knock life stuff, before she was solidly middle class, he also toned down the child prostitution and made her a lot less slutty. The audience embraced the changes.

[quote] I have the deluxe version of the Broadway soundtrack which has bonus tracks that are the composers rough drafts for songs that didn't make the final cut

This is the gayest thing I've read on DL today. Congrats, r16!

Martin Charnin’s daughter HAS to be a DLer.

[quote]I have the deluxe version of the Broadway soundtrack

Oh, DEAR!

Get that Don Budge fellow if he's available, r15. What about La Cage or City of Angels?

I'm *so* with you on that one, r20!

Where did you hear or read that Mark Harris's new bio of Nichols won't have the bisexuality, R13? Very disappointed to hear that.

He took off his wig and fake eyebrows to show the kids what Daddy Warbucks really looked like.

I happen to know someone who got an advanced copy, r23.

Did Nichols have affairs with any famous men?

Mike had a long term off-and-on affair with Richard Avedon which was exposed for the first time in print in the recent Richard Avedon bio, written buy=y Avedon's long-time assistant.

So it is curious that it won't be addressed in the new bio but I'm assuming that it was in exchange for the participation of Diane Sawyer and other Nichols' friends.

What's the shame in revealing that Nichols was gay/bi?

Hollywood is still so fucking homophobic it isn't even funny.

Dorothy Loudon made that show.

So is Diane Sawyer a lesbian?

She didn't get married until she was 43.

Loudon was terrific, but Alice Ghostley was just as good.

If you want another example of taking something that stinks and turning it into something great, look at The Sound of Music. It is a great film that made millions and millions of dollars in 1965. The film is structured to have real drama and suspense, all set to music and with great performances. But the stage version is a saccharine piece of tripe. Robert Wise had great instincts into how the musical numbers should be used in a different order so they would add to the story, not distract from it. I really can't stand the stage version of TSOM.

[quote] Apparently, it doesn't discuss Mike's bisexuality ... but perhaps it will reveal Mike's involvement with Annie.

I fail to see the difference.

Life After Tomorrow.

[quote]Robert Wise had great instincts into how the musical numbers should be used in a different order so they would add to the story, not distract from it.

He did the same thing and improved "West Side Story."

R13, I have an advance copy of the bio. I’ll have a look tom’w and report back.

Also, used to have Annie: A Theatre Memoir which I think was written by Charnin. He sort of makes it seem like Nichols just put his name on it. I suspect Nichols contributed the sharper, more knowing comic bits like when Grace Farrell goes in to join a Warbucks/Annie hug but then backs off. Probably the Hannigan stuff too.

Some things never get old:

There were book musicals since Annie. La Cage Aux Folles, big hit, very old fashioned.

*4 ANNIES 4*

R28, It probably had as much, or more, to do with Diane Sawyer.

Vintage gossip says Diane Sawyer has been linked to Patricia Cornwall and Warren Beatty. So.

As America's Junior Miss, r41, she has to keep her reputation spotless...

"Best Little Whorehouse...", "Barnum", and "Hairspray" are all classic old-style book musicals.

"Annie" has proven to be a somewhat elusive show and in no way foolproof, or director-proof. The non-Nichols Broadway revivals have all failed artistically, financially, or both.

It didn't help that many of the revivals failed to make Hannigan funny and she was just mean. When they brought Jane Lynch into the last revival and allowed to her let loose, it almost worked.

The Nichols bio coming out DOES reveal that he was a crack addict (say what?) and that his heart attack in the 80s was precipitated by crack/cocaine use.

Even the heavy cocaine use was surprising to me (at that age especially, and he just didn’t strike me as the type, plus he was much older than the generation that got into it) but CRACK?? Lol

And that’s somehow “less shameful” than his being bisexual?

How could r15 write about Annie songs and not mention “Tomorrow?”

Hannigan is a tough role to cast and play. She has to be mean AND funny. And, surprisingly, that's apparently hard to pull off.

This is also one of the reasons why "Matilda" doesn't work. Trunchbull is just mean and never that funny other than the whole "it's funny because it's a man playing the role" thing. (Which isn't actually that funny). And, while she's really mean, she's also very easily defeated and just slinks off. It's stupid.

Annie is a very solid, entertaining piece of musical theater with terrific songs.

Matilda is just children shrieking for 2 and a half hours.

I'm guessing ANNIE got labelled as the last classic musical early on in the following years when Broadway was flooded with the Euro pop musicals of Phantom, Miss Saigon, Les Miz, etc.

My memory of BARNUM, a show I never especially liked, was that it was more meta, not in the classic pattern. And LA CAGE and HAIRSPRAY, in spite of their purported "old fashioned values" dealt with very non-traditional subject matter.

ANNIE was like a wonderful old Shirley Temple movie.

Maybe r15 is Zombie John Huston, r47.

So glad some of the original performers were recorded for posterity.

R51- I've watched that video OVER and OVER. NOTHING beats the original cast of Annie-ESPECIALLY Dorothy Loudon and the other adults. They were FABULOUS.

" And LA CAGE and HAIRSPRAY, in spite of their purported "old fashioned values" dealt with very non-traditional subject matter."

*

It isn't about "old fashioned values", r49. In fact those two were about upending old fashioned values. It's about the structure of the works that would categorize them as being traditional book musicals in form.

Doris, as I said: purported "old fashioned values"

PURPORTED was the key word.

Then what do you mean by *values*? That's the word I was confused by.

I've never cared for this show, but that was really interesting, R35.

Hannigan is really tough to cast. I didn't even think Carol Burnett was very good in the role and she seemed like a natural.

This thread has inspired me to do a little reading up on ol' Mikey, and homeboy was a lunatic! Coke and crack, multiple marriages and multiple affairs (with both sexes), a Halcion addiction that turned into full-blown psychosis...how did I have no idea what a freakazoid this guy was??

He made the most whitebread movies ever while living a life that would've made Basquiat blush. Hats off to Mike!

[quote]He made the most whitebread movies ever while living a life that would've made Basquiat blush. Hats off to Mike!

Indeed, fascinating life and work. Not too many excel in both theatre and film. Some whitebread for sure, but also re-watchable gems such as 'The Graduate', 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf', 'Wit', and 'Angels In America' among many others.

Had no clue about crack/cocaine, but that's the A-List for you. High talent always pulls its surprises. Really looking forward to both the oral history and biography.

[quote]It's also the last Broadway score I remember that had one of almost each kind of typical song from the old style of Broadway musicals: the big curtain raiser ("It's a Hard-knock Life"), the "I want" song ("Maybe"), the song that introduces a huge number of characters ("I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here"), the big celebratory song for the entire ensemble ("NYC"),

Good points, except of course "It's a Hard Knock Life" is not actually the first-act curtain-raiser, it's the SECOND song, after "Maybe." I've always felt that the show might not work as well without that emotionally tugging, character-establishing number for Annie right at the top. Even if jthe position of just those two number was switched, and "Maybe" came right after "It's a Hard Knock Life," it might not work quite as well.

[quote]If you want another example of taking something that stinks and turning it into something great, look at The Sound of Music. It is a great film that made millions and millions of dollars in 1965. The film is structured to have real drama and suspense, all set to music and with great performances. But the stage version is a saccharine piece of tripe. Robert Wise had great instincts into how the musical numbers should be used in a different order so they would add to the story, not distract from it. I really can't stand the stage version of TSOM.

Not completely true, R33. I do agree that the film is dramatically stronger, but the stage show does arguably focus more on the political situation in the song "Now Way to Stop It," which was cut from the movie. And the Nazis do have a fairly strong presencein the stage show, even if they're far more menacing in the movie.

[quote]Robert Wise had great instincts into how the musical numbers should be used in a different order so they would add to the story, not distract from it.

Ernest Lehman, who wrote the screenplays for both WSS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, is generally credited and has taken credit for switching the position of some of the songs in both to improve the properties for the movies. I'm sure he deserves that credit, even though it's possible Robert Wise had a hand in the switching as well. Or at least he approved it, much to the betterment of both films.

[quote]Hannigan is really tough to cast. I didn't even think Carol Burnett was very good in the role and she seemed like a natural.

Can't agree with you about Burnett. I think she was great in the part despite the horrendous direction of that movie and some other, bad casting. For a good comic actor, it really should not be difficult to play mean and funny at the same time. Loudon and Alice Ghostley were both great as Hannigan, and though I didn't get to see Sally Struthers in the role, I hear she was excellent also.

Why did John Houston hate Tomorrow — too sentimental? I kind of like that it was saved for the FDR moment - I thought the payoff was better.

I know I’m in the minority but I really like the movie and I like the off-centeredness of it (it kind of isn’t for kids if you think about it, which is what I like but also why it flopped at the box office). And I do think Burnett was the perfect Hannigan (I agree, it’s not hard to play both mean and funny). The few moments of sentiment (Tomorrow, the end number) have a better payoff In my opinion. And the bratty orphans have much smaller parts which to me was good.

I agree r61. I don’t get all the hate for the movie. I think it’s great, add much better than the tired stage show.

[quote]I know I’m in the minority but I really like the movie and I like the off-centeredness of it (it kind of isn’t for kids if you think about it, which is what I like but also why it flopped at the box office).

I think it flopped because Huston had no fucking clue how to direct a movie musical -- at least, not that kind of movie musical. There are a great many tremendously successful family movies that "kind of aren't for kids," or at least not specifically for kids.

[quote]The few moments of sentiment (Tomorrow, the end number) have a better payoff In my opinion.

Seriously? Other than the opening credits and I think maybe the tag of the movie, which don't count as part of the narrative, the first and only time "Tomorrow" is sung is in the scene with FDR, and since we had not previously seen and heard Annie sing it to Sandy when she finds him as a stray on the street, the song had far LESS of a payoff in the FDR scene than it does in the stage show. For what it's worth, I do think "I Don't Need Anything But You" has a bigger emotional payoff in the movie, just because it comes at the very end of the story, when all the problems have been solved and everyone is happy.

[quote] we had not previously seen and heard Annie sing it to Sandy when she finds him as a stray on the street, the song had far LESS of a payoff in the FDR scene than it does in the stage show.

That is such a ridiculous, cloying part of the stage version that gets thunderous applause because of the kid and the song. But the idea of singing Tomorrow to a stray dog you just found is just bad writing. True, it does give the reprise a bigger payoff having heard the original song in the course of the actual plot (versus the opening credits), but I think it works well enough in the movie.

[quote]But the idea of singing Tomorrow to a stray dog you just found is just bad writing.

You are so wrong about that.

The combo of an orphan, a stray dog, and a song of hope was perfect.

[quote] You are so wrong about that. The combo of an orphan, a stray dog, and a song of hope was perfect.

Nope. Bad writing. It stops the action for no good reason other than to get the dog from the comics onto the stage. Sandy had no other function in the stage play other than to be the dog from the comics. The screenplay at least explains how Annie and Sandy’s relationship started and developed and demonstrates how he’s an asset once they get to Warbucks’.

I'm totally with r65, r66. I think yours would be a minority opinion.

[quote]The screenplay at least explains how Annie and Sandy’s relationship started and developed and demonstrates how he’s an asset once they get to Warbucks’.

Just one more reason why the film was such a drag.

That stage number said it all in theatrical shorthand.

THAT is what a number does in a well written musical.

And BTW: The bond between a kid and a dog is instantaneous.

We do not need expository explanation about how their "relationship developed". Good grief.

Insufferable.

Thank you, r68.

I didn't care for the Disney remake in 1999 except the song "NYC" which had Audra so that makes it perfect.

Get out your tissues...

[quote]That is such a ridiculous, cloying part of the stage version that gets thunderous applause because of the kid and the song. But the idea of singing Tomorrow to a stray dog you just found is just bad writing.

I'm going to take a wild guess that you have never written a successful musical -- and never will.

[quote]Nope. Bad writing. It stops the action for no good reason other than to get the dog from the comics onto the stage. Sandy had no other function in the stage play other than to be the dog from the comics.

Are you insane, or an idiot, or a complete no-talent, or just a troll? Or all of the above? P.S. I'm sure the only reason why Sandy is not in more of the stage show is because, obviously, it's difficult to train an animal to be on stage for any length of time, and you run increased risk of something going wrong :-)

[quote]What exactly did mike do or add to Annie when at the Goodspeed to make it a hit.

The kid had eyeballs at the Goodspeed. All I'm saying.

The Goodspeed production was more cartoonish. There was a lot more of what you see Robert Fitch doing in r51's clip. Nichols brought more reality to the show. He toned down the cartoon shtick and brought it into a more reality environment. Below is a picture from the original Goodspeed production. And I'll post another pic where the orphans look like space aliens. Charnin must have never once had a meeting with the costume designer.

Goodspeed Annie Depression Era Space Orphans

One of my favorite moments in the original show was the final entrance of Annie in her classic red dress and funny cartoon orange hair. They were smart to save that look for the end, especially the hair.

R76 Oh my. What were they thinking?

Thanks for posting that.

Has any other Broadway musical produced TWO sequels?

"Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge" starring Dottie Loudon and "Annie Warbucks" starring Broadway legend Donna McKechnie.

That "My Daddy" song should have been sung by a drag queen in a West Village dive bar.

[quote][R76] Oh my. What were they thinking?

Oh, half the scenery is painted silver. I'll just continue that theme with the costumers so the orphans will blend right into the scenery.

Loudon in Annie 2. Don't know why they dressed her like Carol Channing.

The movie was perfectly fine for what it was: [italic]Pete's Dragon 2[/italic].

I guess McKechnie refused to do publicity for Annie Warbucks. She's nowhere to be found. Even the dog gets interviewed.

[quote]Oh, half the scenery is painted silver.

Maybe they were going for a black&white era silver screen thing...but "Little Orphan Annie" was published in color even in the 1920s.

Andrea McArdle is nuts.

The weirdest thing about the show was that the original creator of the comic strip used it to attack the New Deal, but the Broadway musical exactly reversed those values.

Andrea McArdle should have had a bigger career. Let's make that perfectly clear.

Instead SJP who looked the least like Annie out of all of them became the biggest star. Make THAT make sense.

[quote]I really can't stand the stage version of TSOM.

Fuck you Ethel.

As I remember it, of the group of orphans, Danielle Brisebois was the one everyone was talking about during the original run.

[quote] Andrea McArdle should have had a bigger career. Let's make that perfectly clear.

No, she can't act worth shit. I mean really, really bad actress. Wooden is putting it mildly.

[quote]As I remember it, of the group of orphans, Danielle Brisebois was the one everyone was talking about during the original run.

And they were right because when she left Annie, she went into All In The Family.

[quote]The weirdest thing about the show was that the original creator of the comic strip used it to attack the New Deal, but the Broadway musical exactly reversed those values.

Is that why they keep cutting the "We'd Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover" number?

[quote] Fuck you Ethel. —Mary

Save it for Janet, Mary.

Little Danielle...

All In The Family Danielle

Did Danielle do ANYTHING after All in the Family?

Merry Christmas, Annie

R96, she actually released an album in 1994. A real Renaissance gal!

It was either the second or third Annie replacement that pissed the producers off because she told the press she was leaving the show early before she told the producers. My theater gaylings and I discussed that for a week. We thought it was the height of unprofessionalism.

Wasn't Andrea McCardle the Star to Be in the Kathy Bates TV version? Nice little touch to cast her in that part.

I must have just missed seeing Beechman. I still have my Playbill and souvenir program. Beechman is in the program but not the Playbill. She's amazing on the album. Never really got to originate a leading role on Bway sadly. She deserved her a show.

[quote]Never really got to originate a leading role on Bway sadly. She deserved her a show.

Yes, she did. She originated the role of the Narrator in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

but that was a show that had already been done before. She never got an original role. She played the gym teacher in the workshop of Carrie. That would have been something to see Buckley and Beachman both belting in the same show. (if they had just fixed it and let it run....pity Terry Hands messed it up so much.)

I was sort of shocked as a kid to see her in The Pirates of Penzance as one of the sisters. After Annie she seemed destined for bigger things. Her bio even said she'd be starring in a show called Prettybelle? (I think) after Annie. I guess that never got off the ground. She really did seem like a star to be.

The Avedon biography is a really good read though I believe there are those who claim the assistant made a lot of shit up. It says Avedon was terrified of being outed and being considered a gay photographer. I believe it was Nichols who said 'Homosexuality was the love that dare not speak its name. Now it won't shut up.'

Sawyer is peddling the legend that her marriage with Nichols was one for the ages. Incredible in this day and age there is a major bio about him that doesn't talk about him needing to hide his homosexuality to build his momentous career. And everyone in his circle is still hiding it. How ironic after Angels in America. I wonder if this will be pointed out by the reviewers that there's a huge elephant in the room.

Not Prettybelle. That was a huge flop out of town in 1970 with Angela Lansbury that never arrived on Broadway. I saw it.

[quote]but that was a show that had already been done before.

She was in the first Broadway production. And wasn't she the first woman to play the role? Previously, hadn't it been played by men?

R104 So spill! Was it as awful as everyone says it was? Reading the plot it makes you wonder what these major Broadway talents were thinking.

r105 Cleavon Little was the first NY narrator.

Don't know if Laurie was the first woman. The show had been around for a while. A woman might have played it in London.

She should have been in the lead category for the Tonys. That was one of those odd billing things. After the Tonys they moved her and Bill Hutton and replacements above the title. Would have given some competition for Dreamgirls though Holliday still would have won and opened up a slot in supporting for Loretta Devine or Shelley Burch from Nine.

Alice Playton was also one of the daughters in Penzance. Talk about luxury casting. Even though I saw it again on Broadway I don't remember if she made the move.

r108 I think you must be mistaking. I just checked iobdb.com and ibdb.com and Playton wasn't in it off or on Broadway. Maybe you are thinking of Alix Korey?

Obviously replacing the original Annie with Andrea McArdle is what made Annie the success it was .. that, and Dorothy Loudon

The show must have been so disappointing with Sarah Jessica Parker. She has no where near the belting voice all the other Annies had. Audiences must have missed the big Tomorrow show stopping notes. Odd they hired her. She was an orphan when I saw it. I always wondered what they did with her long hair when she went on for Shelly Bruce. Wigs I guess.

What I remember most about the original cast of Annie was sucking off Daddy Warbucks after a Saturday matinee.

Which one? Reid Shelton?

Sad that the talented Alice Playton is mostly known for an Alka Seltzer commercial.

[quote] [R105] Cleavon Little was the first NY narrator.

But that wasn't a Broadway production.

[quote]Has any other Broadway musical produced TWO sequels?

The only reason ANNIE had two sequels was that the first sequel was judged a failure and never really got off the ground. Not that the second sequel turned out much better....

[quote]Andrea McArdle should have had a bigger career. Let's make that perfectly clear.

As someone else above pointed out: No, no, no, she almost zero talent as an actress.

[quote]One of my favorite moments in the original show was the final entrance of Annie in her classic red dress and funny cartoon orange hair. They were smart to save that look for the end, especially the hair.

They stole that from me.

[quote]Did Danielle do ANYTHING after All in the Family?

Does "Archie Bunker's Place" count?

[quote]Did Danielle do ANYTHING after All in the Family?

She was nominated for an Oscar a few years ago for a song she wrote for a Mark Ruffalo movie.

[quote] but that was a show that had already been done before.

Not on Broadway.

Since she was the first to play the role on Broadway, she originated the role on Broadway, ipso facto.

I know r120 I just meant she never got to create a role in an original musical after Annie. Pity. She deserved one. I guess the British musicals took over in the 80s which she did well in as replacements but I can't really think of an original role that would have been good for her.

[quote]Andrea McArdle should have had a bigger career. Let's make that perfectly clear.

And if she had some acting skills, perhaps she would have. More wooden than the stages she's danced on.

At least SJP had some talent other than singing.

[quote]At least SJP had some talent other than singing.

Displayed where?

I could swear I saw Playton in Penzance at the Delacorte. I was very young but knew her from TV and was thrilled to see her on stage. OK dementia has set in.

R123 oh come on, we may be sick of her now, but she was the only one of the Annie’s who could actually act, and that’s in fact why she was hired to begin with (it certainly wasn’t because of her singing). Her personality in those early days won a lot of people over.

looks like you are right r124. She's listed on the taped version that was released recently on dvd.

IOBDB.com must be wrong. Sorry to make you think you were getting dementia!

This is the BEST version of the song.

R35 Out of all those attractive, talented, funny and amazing woman how did SJP emerge as the most famous? What deal with the devil did she sign?

[quote]At least SJP had some talent other than singing. Displayed where?

She knew how to hire people who could dress and style her. Whatever else you want to say about her, she has worn some very nice clothes. And she was able to cultivate a persona of the off-beat, quirky New York girl.

SJP's career trajectory really wasn't affected or enhanced by starring in Annie. And I don't think starring in Square Pegs as that nerdy character lead to her eventual stardom either. But somewhere soon after, she developed a fabulous figure, grew out her golden curls and figured out how to style herself into a very unique persona and the It Girl that lots of young women and many straight men fell in love with.

What were those career-defining roles that lead to Sex in the City? I'm not sure I know.

Andrea & Shelley...

And now for a word from our sponsor...

This thread brought back some great memories. Thank you.

[quote] What were those career-defining roles that lead to Sex in the City? I'm not sure I know.

Hooking up with John-John Kennedy.

There's a long excerpt from the new Nichols bio up on the Vulture site now (no paywall!). It's mostly about the making of Heartburn (the firing of Mandy Patinkin!) and Nichols' collapse afterwards from an addiction to Halcion (among other drugs) and his eventual recovery and meeting Diane Sawyer. A great read! Really looking forward to the book.

SJP's career-making roles that led to SATC:

LA Story Hocus Pocus First Wives Club

In each of these, she played the sexy ingenue. It wasn't that huge a stretch for her to be chosen to portray Carrie.

But she did not age well, to say the least, and after the first couple of seasons the role was no longer a good fit for her. And here we are 20+ years later, and SJP is still trying to play the sexy ingenue...

There was also that film she did with Nicolas Cage (spacing on the name) in which she spent a lot of it in a bikini, which didn't hurt back then.

That Heartburn song!

Parker lucked out. When she took the role on SATC an HBO series was not a respected thing to have in showbiz. Her film career was circling the drain. Then The Sopranos premiered and HBO became esteemed and SATC rode that wave thanks to a lot of delusional young women who aspired to move to NY and wear fancy shoes.

19 former Annies...

Gregg Alexander & Danielle Brisebois KROQ interview

R130/r136/r137 she was also in a movie called Miami Rhapsody, which wasn’t a hit, but she was some sort of writer/narrator and basically a Carrie prototype except 1) living in Miami and 2) Jewish.

-oooooooooooooooooooooo-

Can't link it but Dwight Garber in the NY Times gives Mark Harris' new bio of Nichols a rave.

Elaine May Salutes Albert Einstein's Cousin - Mike Nichols - at the AFI Life Achievement Award

He taught Reid Shelton how to be bald and a closet queen.

He taught Basquiat to do crack.

Remember the satellite feed of Diane drinking wine and popping a pill before going live?

Then there is drunk Diane on election night 2012.

If my husband did crack and fucked around with both sexes, I'd take solace in the bottle, too.

R73,

You wrote:

P.S. I'm sure the only reason why Sandy is not in more of the stage show is because, obviously, it's difficult to train an animal to be on stage for any length of time, and you run increased risk of something going wrong :-)

You do realize that this why the only reason Sandy appears in the musical is to be the dog from the comic strip. The dog is not integrated into the story in any meaningful way.

You really think Sandy needed more of a backstory, r151? The Annie hair and dress aren't really integrated either. It's an unflattering 'do and a plain dress. But that had to be included as well. Where's the backstory on why she's sporting a bad perm and an ugly schmatta? And why no poker chip eyes???

Nichols had to have made a fortune off of ANNIE. Did the money go up his nose?

He started making a fortune when he directed hit shows like Barefoot in the Park and Odd Couple and then immediately made big hit movies like Virginia Woolf and The Graduate. If well invested that money could have made him very comfortable for life.

Yes, and on breeding horses and according to somebody upthread, leather gear. He had expensive yet trashy tastes.

R152, yes. The dog and the dress are just there because they figure in the comic strip. They are not integrated into the book and look of the musical.

[quote]If you want another example of taking something that stinks and turning it into something great, look at The Sound of Music. It is a great film that made millions and millions of dollars in 1965. The film is structured to have real drama and suspense, all set to music and with great performances. But the stage version is a saccharine piece of tripe.

It's not a great film. It doesn't have great performances or "real drama". It's entertaining, competent, overblown family oriented and sanitized.

For a musical of that period, r157, it does indeed have great performances and "real drama".

R158 has it right. There are musicals up to the 1950s with real drama and great performances. But in the 60s when SOM was made---none.

[quote] The dog and the dress are just there because they figure in the comic strip. They are not integrated into the book and look of the musical.

But the show does end with Annie opening her Christmas present to find Sandy jump out of the box and into her arms as the curtain falls.

Were Nichols and Dorothy Loudon ever a couple? It was a genius move getting her for that part...

R161 I doubt that, but Nichols was a fan of Loudon's; he cast her in the sole female role in the national tour of his Broadway hit "Luv."

Miss Beechman...

Peter and Elaine in LUV

r60 = insufferable.

I would argue that ANNIE had just as much or an even bigger cultural/historical impact than Nichol's "The Graduate." ANNIE created a generation of kids who fell in love with musicals, and it remains one of the most-produced shows in the world.

Two different animals, r166.

I saw The Apple Tree on Broadway, which Mike Nichols directed with the brilliant Barbara Harris. But I also saw a touring production of it with Dorothy Loudon, also directed by Nichols, so he was clearly aware of her talents. And I imagine she and Nichols both played a lot of those same intimate clubs in NY in the late 50s/early 60s when he was still performing with Elaine May.

Most posters here probably already know this but Dorothy often starred in huge Broadway flops throughout the 60s and 70s where she'd still walk away with sterling reviews, The Fig Leaves Are Falling , Noel Coward's Sweet Potato, a revival of The Women and Lolita My Love are just a few of them. And she replaced Carol Burnett as the singer/comedienne on the old Garry Moore TV variety hour so she was very well-known to everyone working on Broadway by the time Annie happened. But it was Annie that finally made her a big Broadway star.

Felt like listening to this again.

Carol wasn't the dancer Dorothy was...

CBS Sunday Morning is doing a segment right now focused on the new biography.

Biographer says at age four due to a vaccination he lost all the hair on his body for the rest of his life. It’s hard to believe those are wigs and toupees, especially the crew cuts looking ones. He must have had the best ones of each era.

No mention of the hard knock life.