The mops are out, the floors are getting scrubbed, and the orphans of the Municipal Orphanage are making their feelings about both very clear. Goodspeed Musicals has shared rehearsal footage of Laiken Jules and the young cast of its 50th anniversary production of Annie running “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” the number that turns morning chores into the show’s first big showstopper.
Jules, at the center of the line, leads the orphans through the choreography in a rehearsal room set up with the orphanage’s bunk beds. Joining her in the footage are Anjali Roa as Molly, Sadie Jean Williams as Pepper, Skyla Joy Ward as Duffy, Adalyn Bickley as July, Issa Gonzalez as Tessie and Ava J. Fernandez as Kate, per BroadwayWorld‘s rundown of the video, which also features Tony nominee Emily Skinner, the production’s Miss Hannigan.
The production opens October 30 at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, the same stage where Annie premiered on August 10, 1976, before transferring to Broadway. As TDN reported yesterday, Jules marked her arrival at the theater in a promotional video filmed on the Opera House steps, and she takes the stage under director Jenn Thompson for a run that continues through December 27.
The adult company includes Christopher Swan as Oliver Warbucks, Julia Nicole Hunter as Grace Farrell, Rhett Guter as Rooster and Kelly Berman as Lily St. Regis, in a staging of the Tony-winning musical by book writer Thomas Meehan, composer Charles Strouse and lyricist Martin Charnin. Tickets are on sale now at Goodspeed.org. Families can circle November 4 through 8, when Family Nights offer $15 tickets for kids ages 8 to 18 with each adult ticket purchase, with the cast signing autographs after the November 7 performance.
Fifty years after the orphans first sang about their hard knock life in East Haddam, a new generation is learning every step, and the floors have never looked cleaner.