New North American Tour of the iconic Tony Award-winning musical ANNIE to play Marcus Performing Arts Center April 25 – 27, 2025

MILWAUKEE (November 20, 2024) – Leapin’ Lizards!  The 2024/25 tour of the iconic Tony Award^®-winning musical ANNIE will play the Marcus Performing Arts Center (MPAC) for a limited run April 25 – 27, 2025. Tickets will go on sale to the public starting Friday, November 22 at 10:00 a.m. This multi-week tour is produced by Carolyn Rossi Copeland and Crossroads Live North America. ANNIE is part of the 2024/25 Johnson Financial Group Broadway at the Marcus Center Season and last played the Marcus Performing Arts Center in the 2005/26 season.

To purchase tickets, visit www.MarcusCenter.org, call 414-273-7206, or visit the MPAC Box Office at 929 North Water Street, Downtown Milwaukee. Groups of 10 or more can secure their seats by calling 414-273-7207.

In the title role of “Annie” is Hazel Vogel, a 12-year-old from Towson, MD, most recently seen in the North American Tour of Les Misérables. Returning principal cast includes Stefanie Londino as “Miss Hannigan,” Christopher Swan as “Oliver Warbucks,” Julia Nicole Hunter as “Grace,” and Mark Woodard as “FDR.” Also starring in the tour are Rhett Guter as “Rooster” and Isabella De Souza Moore as “Lily St. Regis.”  Kevin, a seven-year-old labradoodle from Georgia, stars as “Sandy.”

The Orphans are Aria Valentina Aldea, Eva Lizette Carreon, Anna Dillon, Kylie Noelle Patterson, Olive Ross-Kline and Nora West.

The featured ensemble includes Stephen Cerf, Anthony DaSilva, Savannah Fisher, Alloria Frayser, Brooke Olivia Gatto, Caroline Glazier, Ryan Mulvaney, Joel Newsome, Melinda Parrett, Lawrence E. Street, Drew Tanabe and Stephanie Wahl.

“This show, with its iconic title character, continues to delight generations of theatre-lovers old and new by joyfully singing directly into the face of great adversity with perseverance, guts and guile,” said director Jenn Thompson. “For decades, ANNIE has continued to shine brightly, not only as an appeal to our better angels, but also as an example of the thrill of hope, hard-won: promising a better ‘Tomorrow’ not only for Annie herself, but for all who need her message now more than ever.”

ANNIE is directed by Jenn Thompson, who at the age of 10 stepped into the role of “Pepper” in the Original Broadway production, choreographed by Patricia Wilcox (Motown, A Night with Janis Joplin), with orchestrations by Dan DeLange. The tour music supervisor is Matthew Smedal. Talitha Fehr is the Music Coordinator and Andrew David Sotomayor is the Music Director.

The design team includes scenic design by Wilson Chin (Pass Over), costume design by Alejo Vietti (Jersey Boys), based on lighting design by Philip Rosenberg, sound design by Ken Travis (Disney’s Aladdin), hair & wig design by Ashley Rae Callahan and casting by Paul Hardt Casting, LLC.

The ANNIE tour stage management team is led by production stage manager Nykol DeDreu, stage manager Brigham Johnson and is supported by assistant stage manager Tara Tolar-Payne. The company management team is led by company manager Royce Matthews with assistant company manager Angela Strohbeck.

Holding onto hope when times are tough can take an awful lot of determination, and sometimes, an awful lot of determination comes in a surprisingly small package. Little Orphan Annie has reminded generations of theatergoers that sunshine is always right around the corner, and now the best-loved musical of all time is set to return in this new production – just as you remember it and just when we need it most.  This celebration of family, optimism and the American spirit remains the ultimate cure for all the hard knocks life throws your way.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as, “one of the best family musicals ever penned!”, ANNIE features the book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin. All three authors received 1977 Tony Awards^® for their work.

By permission of Tribune Content Agency, LLC, ANNIE is based on Harold Gray’s popular comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” which premiered in the 1920s in the New York Daily News and became one of the most widely read strips in the 30s and 40s.  Lyricist-director Martin Charnin bought a coffee table book called “The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie” as a Christmas gift for a friend in 1970. The clerk at the bookstore was too busy to wrap the book, so Charnin took the book home to wrap it.  Instead, he read it and fell in love with the strip and set out to secure the rights. The friend never got the book.

The original production of ANNIE had its world premiere on Aug 10, 1976 at the Goodspeed Opera House (Michael J. Price, Executive Director) and opened on Broadway on April 21, 1977 at the Alvin Theatre (Neil Simon theatre).  It went on to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the Grammy for Best Cast Show Album and seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book (Thomas Meehan) and Best Score (Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin).  It closed on Broadway after playing 2,377 performances.  ANNIE was revived on Broadway in 1997 and again in 2014. It has been made into a film three times (1982, 1999, 2014) and was most recently featured as a live television production on NBC.  The show remains one of the biggest Broadway musical hits ever; it has been performed in 28 languages and has been running somewhere around the world for 37 years.

The beloved score for ANNIE includes “Maybe,” “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” “Easy Street,” “I Don’t Need Anything But You” and the eternal anthem of optimism, “Tomorrow.”

This production of ANNIE was licensed by Music Theatre International and is produced by Carolyn Rossi Copeland Productions Inc. and Crossroads Live North America. For additional information on this production of ANNIE, please visit AnnieTour.com.

Connect with ANNIE on tour: www.AnnieTour.com
Facebook: @AnnieTourUS
Instagram: @AnnieTourUS
X: @AnnieOnTour
#AnnieOnTour #TheSunWillComeOut #HardKnockLife

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.