Want to Beat the Blues? The Musical "Annie" Is Back

By Bruce Chadwick
originally published: 01/31/2024

The Orphans in the North American Tour of ANNIE. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Anybody in this country who does not know what life was like in orphanages, or America, in the Depression 1930s has not been to see the musical Annie. In it, writers, directors  and actors show the audience the economic and social devastation in the country, The heroine of the very upbeat, poignant story is little mop-top Annie, the cute, lovable little girl with the bright, curly red hair who gets taken in by super wealthy Daddy Warbucks, whose fortune puts Donald Trump to shame, after years of living in a dreary, rodents of some kind infested orphanage, run by the equally dreary Miss Hannigan, who gives evil a bad name. The other orphans in the play where Annie lives are the co-heroines of the play.

You feel bad about something? Go see Annie. The musical opens at the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick on Friday, February 2nd and runs through Sunday, February 4th with four performances in all.

One of the orphans in the play is young actress Addie Jaymes, who grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Manahawkin. She is eleven going on 40. Addie is well educated, brash, intelligent, wrapped up in history and glad, really glad, to be in Annie.

“Add that I’m really really glad” she chuckles.

Addie says that everybody thinks she acts and speaks like an adult. “Hey, that’s OK. As long as they don’t think I’m 52!”

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She, like everybody, understands the pull that the musical has had since it first opened on Broadway in 1977.

“It’s a show you want to see because it will lift up your spirits. No matter what is bothering you, you will feel a lot better after you see Annie. It’s one of the rare shows that has that staying power, you not only feel better about things, but will feel better about things for weeks.”

Rainier (Rainey) Treviño and Georgie in the North American Tour of ANNIE. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Addie had to work hard to get the role of the orphan, Kate, that she enjoys so much. “I went through three auditions. That’s a lot. Finally, after weeks, my agent called, first thing he said was ‘are your bags packed?’

And off she went.

Addie got her start in show business, well, way - back - when. Her dad starred in many plays when he was in college. He helps her rehearse. Her mom was sort of in show business, too, in college and is a great supporter of Addie’s.

‘They are my rocks,” Addie says. ‘Couldn’t handle it all – travel, work, etc, without them.”

She also gets a lot of encouragement from her friends in Manahawkin, many of whom are in show business themselves. “I can always rely on them for support,” she said.

At 11, Addie certainly does not have the understanding of the Great Depression as a graduate school history major, but she understands the depth of it and how it – bitterly – affected people- the national devastation of it.

“As a person, I understand the Depression, poverty in any year, but I’m an actress. This is a role I play. It’s two separate things,” she said.

“In Annie, I, the audience, can see how bad the depression was. There have been a lot of movies about it, too. I think that in a musical the songs about the grief of the 1930s come through even more because of the songs. They really make you think about it.”

Her favorite song is ‘Hooverville’ about the tent city that grew in New York’s Central Park during the Depression. ‘You listen to that, and when the actors sing it, you get a pretty good sense of how really bad things were back then,” she said.

There was hope, and is hope for people who struggle today, too.

“People in Hoovervilles made the best of their situation. They really did. I think they turned to laughter to do that. There’s nothing stronger than a good laugh to beat the blues. In Annie, too, we emphasize the positive – things are going to get better. Yes, they are.”

Oh, and remember, too, as the performers sing in the show. that “the sun will come out tomorrow…”

Christopher Swan and Rainier (Rainey) Treviño in the North American Tour of ANNIE. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

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Performances take place on Friday, February 2 at 8:00pm; Saturday, February 3 at 2:00pm & 8:00pm; and Sunday, February 4 at 1:00pm. State Theatre New Jersey is located at 15 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.

About the author:

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Bruce Chadwick worked for 23 years as an entertainment writer/critic for the New York Daily News. Later, he served as the arts and entertainment critic for the History News Network, a national online weekly magazine. Chadwick holds a Ph. D in History and Cultural Studies from Rutgers University. He has written 31 books on U.S. history and has lectured on history and culture around the world. He is a history professor at New Jersey City University.

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