It was, on paper at least, an odd casting choice.

Miss Hannigan, the harridan of an orphanage owner in the musical Annie, is as good a role as you'll find for a strong actress.

So handing it to a man in a frock seems positively Elizabethan; from the school of thought which holds that the stage is not a fit place for a lady to be seen.

Lily Savage, however, is a better actress than most real women - and any reservations about her in a (relatively) straight role are rendered pointless the moment she walks on stage.

"I'm an ordinary woman with feelings," she sings, adding an extra comedic layer the composers never intended.

Notwithstanding the fact that its plot (an orphanage at Christmas, a billionaire and a stray dog) would have made Rodgers and Hammerstein throw up, this West End production of Annie is in the very best tradition of musical theatre.

It's slick, it's expensive, it's BIG. Not only Lily but the whole cast - and not least Bradford's Sophie McShera as Li'l Orphan Annie herself - give it their all, and then some. It's a joy to watch the orphanage kids beat their broomsticks to A Hard Knock Life.

And the simplicity of the plot is a strength, make no mistake - as, of course, is one of the most hummable scores ever written.

Lily Savage is, by her standards, as restrained as a whalebone corset, but neither the constraints of the script nor her Brooklyn accent disguise her brilliant gift for comedy. The audience is clearly in love with her, and the appearance of her name on the marquee has shifted almost every ticket for the entire two-week run.

Although it's only 23-years-old (the comic strip on which it's based is much older) Annie is already a classic. There can't be a little girl in the country who hasn't tried to make the high note in Tomorrow at music class.

If you're among the fortunate ones with a ticket for this show, you'll hear them hit it nicely.

David Behrens

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.