The Best Annie I Have Ever Seen

I grew up with the musical Annie. I remember when I was a kid, watching a program called In The News (a 2 minute newscast for kids in between cartoons on Saturday Mornings on CBS) about the Broadway premiere of the show. My mom used to play the songs from Annie on her piano and sing them as well. Besides the movie, and several t.v. versions I have seen Annie or it's kid's version Annie Jr. at least 5 times. These 5 times were not including seeing it performed last night.

Last night's production was a little unusual in that it was performed by a troupe from the Penguin Project. The Penguin Project started in the Peoria, Illinois area and is theatre performed by children who are handicapped or have other special needs. The Peoria Troupe has spun off two additional troupes since then both in Illinois, one in the Bloomington/Normal area and this weekend in the Sycamore/Dekalb area.

I attended last night because my nephew who is a 4th grader was one of the artists in the production. The Penguin Project calls all their special needs performers artists. They pair each artist with a mentor, a student without disabilities who performs alongside the artists. Now if you think this would turn out like special ed students in a play with 1 on 1 aides you could not be farther from the truth. The mentors blend into the background and besides some limited physical assistance and a few line prompts were indistinguishable from the rest of the troupe.

Yesterday's performance had to be the best version of Annie I have ever seen. These kids could really act and sing and within 5 minutes you were not watching a performance of Annie with a disabled cast, you were just watching a performance of Annie.

Anyone familiar with Annie knows that the juiciest part of the show is not Annie, it's Miss Hannigan - the director of the orphanage. This version's Miss Hannigan was hands down the best I have ever seen and I say that meaning no disrespect for Carol Burnett. The girl who played her showed excellent comic bravada and a tremendous singing voice to boot. I could go and tell you which disability or special needs he and each other performer had, but the strength of their performances was what they could do and not what they could not.

Besides seeing a terrific rendition of a favorite musical was being able to see my nephew involved with it.. I have never felt of him as disabled even though he falls somewhere in the autism spectrum. This was his first acting role and he played various New Yorkers throughout the show. He did a fine job and more importantly really enjoyed himself. It was bittersweet as I know how proud his father, my brother, would have been if he would had lived to see him on that stage.

Here is my nephew getting congratulated by his sister as his mentor watches over him.

Next Time: Fall T.V.

Summer Reading Ended Before Summer Actually Did

Summer drew to a close at 3:o9 a.m. GMT 9/23 for the year of 2010. In good old Central time that is 10:09 p.m. 9/22. Summer is over and it is now time to report how I did in my Summer Reading. The answer is I did lousy. I hoped to read 20 books and read less than 10.


This is the book that did me in.



















I have heard for many years how the book was far superior to the movie. So instead of watching the movie, I got the book from the library. I found the premise of the book very captivating. Time travelers in literature, are a generally glorified lot. The idea of time travel as genetic defect is very intriguing. From the excellent prologue on, this book shows the time traveller and his wife both with many adverse effects of his disease.


I really did enjoy the dual narration from the principal characters. I especially liked when they were both describing the same scenes from differing POV. I also liked how the story moved in and out of time but still maintained a chronal cohesiveness.


However, at times the cohesiveness would slip and I would not know when or where the characters were forcing me to go back and read again. The book is also quite lengthymhich is okay when done right. The secret of a great book is no matter how long it is, when you are finished you still want to know more. If you make the book over long you run into the possibility that the reader may stop wanting to know more even before they finish reading. Or in this case, I ended up needing to have been told more than I actually was. Unanswered questions after 500 pages are in my mind never a good thing.


I often will read several books at a time and I read Time Travellers Wife in fits and spurts. In between those spurts I started several other books but only finished one.





















I am a big David Rosenfelt especially his Andy Carpenter series. Dog Tags is not one of Rosenfelt's or Carpenter's better efforts. I don't mind if his plots go to the dogs but I'd hate to see his writing head there as well.

As a whole it was a pretty good book. But there were some things on a book level and a series level that I found unsettling. On the book level, I am used to twists and turns of the legal and illegal worlds that Rosenfelt sometimes makes us privy to. However, I thought the subplot concerning the jury was either underdeveloped, poorly conceived, extremely unrealistic, or all three. on a series level, while I liked the addition of a new 2nd chair lawyer, I don't like the direction Rosenfelt seems to be heading with some of the other ensemble characters. Willie's role in this book was far too contrived. Also, I miss song talking!


So, there we have it. While I have not achieved my goal of 10 books read, I have achieved my goal of reviewing each book I did read and posting those reviews here. Sometime later this fall I hope to put up a Summer Reading 2010 page on this blog so you can have all the reviews in one more manageable place.

Next Time: Fall T.V.