My family and I had the most awesome and spontaneous evening last night. My husband was commenting that it was too bad that we hadn’t gotten our act together and purchased tickets for the musical “Annie,” which was playing in Tucson this past week as part of the Broadway in Tucson series. “Let’s go,” I said! Our son was at a sleepover, but our daughter was over the moon at the possibility. We tried to call the box office, but to no avail. So, we decided to just head down to Centennial Hall where it was playing to see if we could purchase tickets right then and there.
Leapin’ lizards! Apparently, there is something called “rush tickets,” which I guess are last minute sales to fill seats. Our amazing seats not too far back in the center of orchestra seating cost us $25 each! Who knew that this actually happens??? What a bargain!
I can’t express to you all what a joy it was to see this excellent production with my little chip off the old block who seems to have developed a love of musicals just like her Mum. We’ve seen the “Annie” movie from 1982 a thousand times. I think we even own two copies of it, but to see it live with a full orchestra, songs that were cut from the movie, stage sets, etc. is a different story. I walked out of that theater grinning from ear to ear. We all did, and we sang the songs long after the show was over – even as we fell asleep with a smile still plastered to our faces.
Annie is a feel-good musical full of optimism and great music and yes, even an adorable little dog. Who couldn’t love this?
Of course my song of the day needs to be “Tomorrow,” but of course, I had to revert back to my childhood and my obsession with Andrea McArdle who originated the role on Broadway in the 70’s. It was her voice that I sang along to on the vinyl album that I owned and that I listened to over and over and over again. No one could belt out those notes like she could, but oh, how I strived to do it even with my alto voice. I wanted to be her! So, of course, I had to find footage of Andrea McArdle singing it to share today in this blog post.
So, here y’all go, and you better bet your bottom dollar that “Annie” will forever have a soft spot in my heart. I’m happy to say that I believe the same is true for my little girl and all the generations to come.
