“What we are doing is important for the community,” she says. Laurine is, like everyone in the cast, very expressive about the good time she is having with a well-written, easy-flowing show and the friendships that are created in rehearsal. She recently remarked that Hannigan has no trouble jerking the orphan girls around but she, herself, has plenty of trouble.
The singular Laurine can take those negatives and be positively side-splitting. She has a little problem with glass bottles containing evaporative fluids. Miss Hannigan is, as you already know, not suited to be in charge of an orphanage. The shows she was done! Kiss Me Kate, Once Upon a Mattress, Sweeney Todd, Peter Pan, The Belle Of Amherst, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Hello, Dolly! etc., etc., etc. We around home know her as Laurine Varner, an exquisite vocalist and definitive comedienne. JB speaks of the fun he is having with part AND the special kick of performing in a show with his granddaughter Alexandra, who plays an orphan named Molly.Īlthough her whole character name is Miss Agatha Hannigan, the world knows and reviles her as simply Miss Hannigan. For ANNIE, JB sees Warbucks as a man missing something in his life, not knowing what, and certainly not thinking the answer to his loneliness is a kid. Those are just a few of his characters here and in theatre groups in Greensboro and Burlington. Since then, he has been an Egyptian king, a Broadway star, a functionary in the court of the King of Siam and a talking candelabrum in Disney’s Beauty And the Beast. JB’s first role with RSVP was as the Seabee Luther Billis in South Pacific when it was presented at Southwestern Randolph High School. Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks will be portrayed by JB Griffith III of Liberty. Here are some of the lead roles - some of the names will be very familiar as friends, co-workers and relatives. The folks listed above chose the cast of the show on the basis of ability and “rightness for the parts” - not an easy task, particularly when the major characters are so well-known to the audience in advance and the ensemble is so important. Add to this the greatest cheerleader a show ever had, Peggy Kilburn, the capital-P Producer. Joshua Way is a stage manager with superb skills at keeping things organized. Lisa has been the secret soul of all but one of the RSVP musicals over the last 34 years. The pianistic skills of Lisa Johnson support the cast during the rehearsal period and in performance. Kathleen Gee, a woman of many talents - musical, pedagogical and theatrical - is the musical director. James Shover, who has worked with previous RSVP productions such as Once Upon A Mattress, Spamalot! and Hello, Dolly!, as well as Randolph Youth Theater Company shows, directs- teacher, motivator, humorist, a person who can pull a widely diverse cast to a unity that will bring you to your feet. These are people who love people enough to toil their summer away making a treat to relieve the weariness of the world for a short while. ANNIE has run for a total of 3,103 performances on the Great White Way originally and in two revivals.Īfter becoming an icon of American musical theatre, ANNIE is coming to you! With its strong story, memorable songs, and spectacle big enough so you don’t need your spectacles, its most precious asset is the cast of local people making it happen.