History YMMV / Annie

** The 2023 UK Tour had Paul O'Grady playing Miss Hannigan, a part he had done years before. It would be the last thing he did, Paul died 10 days after he finished the Edinburgh part of the tour, Tommy Wade-Smith who was in the cast had a Platform/TikTok, where he chatted with Paul during rehearsals and he managed to capture one of Paul's last curtain calls. The tour carried on to Liverpool, where Paul was meant to play Hannigan again but instead, Craig Reveal Horwood played it and dedicated the performances to Paul's memory.

** The 2023 UK Tour had Paul O'Grady playing Miss Hannigan, a part he had done years before. It would be the last thing he did, Paul died 10 days after he finished the Edinburgh part of the tour, Tommy Wade-Smith who was in the cast had a TikTok, where he chatted with Paul during rehearsals and he managed to capture one of Paul's last curtain calls. The tour carried on to Liverpool, where Paul was meant to play Hannigan again but instead, Craig Reveal Horwood played it and dedicated the performances to Paul's memory.

* AwardSnub: At the Tony Awards, the original Broadway production won every major creative award except for Best Director, which went to a now-obscure musical called ''I Love My Wife''. Because Creator/MikeNichols was the producer of ''Annie'', it was widely suspected that he and not Martin Charnin had directed the show, which may have contributed to Charnin's snub, but [[https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/blog/martin-charnins-legacy-by-peter-filichia/ a critic who saw ''Annie'' before Nichols came on as producer]] has said there was "no discernable directorial difference" between Charnin's early version and the one that opened on Broadway, while both Nichols and Charles Strouse have said that Charnin was sole director.

* AwardSnub: At the Tony Awards, the original Broadway production won every major creative award except for Best Director, which went to a now-obscure musical called ''I Love My Wife''. Because Creator/MikeNichols was the producer of ''Annie'', it was widely suspected that he and not Martin Charnin had directed the show, which may have contributed to Charnin's snub, but [[https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/blog/martin-charnins-legacy-by-peter-filichia/ a critic who saw the show before Nichols joined]] has said there was "no discernable directorial difference" between Charnin's early version and the one that opened on Broadway.

* AwardSnub: At the Tony Awards, the original Broadway production won every major creative award except for Best Director, which went to a now-obscure musical called ''I Love My Wife''. Because Creator/MikeNichols was the producer of ''Annie'', it was widely suspected that he and not Martin Charnin had directed the show, which may have contributed to Charnin's snub; composer Charles Strouse has gone on record as saying that the rumours were false and that Charnin directed the entire production himself.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The musical and its adaptations are better known than the original comic strip these days.

*** Reading the plot to this musical explains a lot, it's subtitled as Miss Hannigan's Revenge [[note]] Dorothy Loudon reprised her role as Miss Hannigan[[/note]], the story is that Warbucks is told by a Child Welfare Commissioner that he needs to marry to finalize the adoption of Annie and feeling that Grace is too young, decides to find a wife closer to his age. Miss Hannigan escapes from and with the help of some cons becomes the perfect wife with her background knowledge of Annie, she passes the tests but realising that Annie will have to approve her causes her to almost quit however she finds a street girl that looks like her and she was about to get away when Grace realises the truth and saves Annie from death. Miss Hannigan is exposed and is handcuffed away with her gang, Grace shows Oliver that she is suitable, he marries her and Annie gets her happy ending.
*** The reason for its failure was partly because it had the worst case of an idiot plot, Annie 1 had a conclusion that worked also Warbucks is friends with FDK surely he could bend the rules so he could be a single parent adoption, Miss Hannigan's revenge plot made no sense as she commited fraud and was caught, Annie did nothing to deserve revenge.
** Then a second sequel called Annie Warbucks, which has done a little better but it stayed Off-Broadway, a transfer to Broadway was planned but the Backer pulled out.
*** The plot uses the marriage for adoption plot from the former sequel but the Child Welfare Commissioner Harriet Doyle is using it to make her daughter Sheila Kelly his wife and rob him of his fortune, however Annie and Grace end up playing a trick at the wedding causing Doyle and Kelly to expose themselves and Warbucks to express his feelings for Grace and the happy ending once more.

* SweetnessAversion: While it's part of the charm for fans, the main issue critics take with the show is it's sickeningly sweet with fairly little conflict to disrupt this.

** In 2003, Amanda Dehnert directed a production for Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island which was a lot darker than usual, playing up the harsh Depression Era setting and averting most of the usual sweetness. However, it had a reworked ending, which had Annie waking up and realizing that the happy ending was AllJustADream. Martin Charnin saw one of the early previews and wasn't happy with the negative impression, so the ending was deleted. However, Charles Strouse saw it, enjoyed the reworking, asked Dehnert to produce his new musical.

*** The 1982 Movie's Orphans Reprisal is just heartbreaking.
** In the 1982 Movie Grace telling Annie that they haven't found her parents yet, as a sad melody of Maybe is played, Annie sadly walks away, Grace in disgust tells Warbucks the amount of people that came and yet they knew nothing of [[GenreSavvy locket]] saying about how terrible people could be.

* JerkassWoobie: Miss Hannigan, who drinks on the job to relieve the stress. And consider [[TheGreatDepression the time she lives in;]] it gives her a double-whammy of disadvantages: not only is there a depression, but her gender would severely limit her job options as well. Basically, she has no option but to work a job that she's completely unsuited for. On top of that the orphans take joy out of making her life miserable and while this isn't entirely unjustified, it does explain her attitude towards them in her song "Little Girls".

* ValuesDissonance: In the show's original book, Miss Hannigan spanks Annie with a paddle onstage when she catches her trying to run away. Thomas Meehan later revised the script to cut this part, as do all the film versions, since by post-'70s standards it's less "family friendly" to see a child being hit, even by a villain.
* WTHCastingAgency: The live show casting Creator/TitussBurgess as Rooster raised its share of eyebrows given the character is pretty much the exact opposite of the actor's repertoire.

** The documentary ''Life After Tomorrow'', though mainly interviewing former orphans that dropped out of the spotlight, had a few recognizable faces, including Creator/{{MSNBC}} anchor Dara Brown, [[Series/AsTheWorldTurns Martha Byrne]], Creator/SentaMoses, and [[Series/AmericanIdol Joanna Pacitti]].

** This same revival had Nell Carter as Miss Hannigan, she even got a extra song, however she was upset to see Commericals were using Marcia Lewis [[note]] who had played Miss Hannigan in the pre Broadway Tour [[/note]] an white actress instead of her, Nell reported it to the Producers who claimed expense was the reason, however she felt that Race had been behind it but in the end it she understood the money problems to reshoot, but she was replaced by a white actress before this troubled revival ended after 239 performances.

** In 2003, Amanda Dehnert directed a production for Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island which was a lot darker than usual, playing up the harsh Depression Era setting and averting most of the usual sweetness. However, it had a reworked ending, which had Annie waking up and realizing that the happy ending was AllJustADream. Martin Charnin, saw one of the early run and wasn't happy with the negative impression, so the ending was deleted. However, Charles Strouse saw it, enjoyed the reworking, asked Dehnert to produce his new musical.

** In the 1982 Movie Grace telling Annie that they haven't found her parents yet, as a sad melody of Maybe is played, Annie sadly walks away, Grace in disgust tells Warbucks the amount of people that came and yet they knew nothing of [[GenreSavvythe locket]] saying about how terrible people could be.

** That said, during the show's first previews at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, the child actress who originally played Annie, Kristen Vigard, was let go because she came across as too sweet in the role. The production team decided they needed a tougher, more streetwise Annie, so Andrea McArdle, who was originally cast as [[TheBully Pepper]], was promoted.

* CommonKnowledge: It's often been said (and was formerly written on this very page) that in Amanda Dehnert's notorious DarkerAndEdgier production for the Trinity Repertory Theatre in 2003, Annie [[AllJustADream woke up]] back at the orphanage in the end, turning the happy ending into a DownerEnding. But while it did have an AllJustADream finale (until Martin Charnin disapproved, that is), Annie didn't wake up back in the orphanage: she woke up in an abandoned theatre, where she had wandered and fallen asleep after running away from the orphanage, and in a [[BittersweetEnding Bittersweet]] RayOfHopeEnding, she sang a reprise of "Tomorrow" and then left with Sandy in search of a new life. It wasn't as entirely bleak as legend has it, although Martin Charnin still forced the production team to cut it.

* CommonKnowledge: It's often been said (and was formerly written on this very page) that in Amanda Dehnert's notorious DarkerAndEdgier production for the Trinity Repertory Theatre in 2013, Annie [[AllJustADream woke up]] back at the orphanage in the end, turning the happy ending into a DownerEnding. But while it did have an AllJustADream finale (until Martin Charnin disapproved, that is), Annie didn't wake up back in the orphanage: she woke up in an abandoned theatre, where she had wandered and fallen asleep after running away from the orphanage, and in a [[BittersweetEnding Bittersweet]] RayOfHopeEnding, she sang a reprise of "Tomorrow" and then left with Sandy in search of a new life. It wasn't as entirely bleak as legend has it, although Martin Charnin still forced the production team to cut it.

** Amanda Dehnert, directed a production in Providence, Rhode Island which was a lot more darker averting most of the sweet, however it had a reworked ending which had Annie waking up back at the orphanage after the happy ending Martin Charnin, saw one of the early run and wasn't happy with the negative impression, the ending was deleted, however Charles Strouse, saw it and enjoyed the reworking and asked Dehnert to produce his new musical.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Music/HarryConnickJr's bald wig in the NBC telecast proved unconvincing to most viewers.

*** The reason for it's failure was partly because it had the worst case of IdiotPlot, Annie 1 had a conclusion that worked also Warbucks is friends with FDK surely he could bend the rules so he could be a single parent adoption, Miss Hannigan's revenge plot made no sense as she commited fraud and was caught, Annie did nothing to deserve revenge.

*** The fact the orphans all sing Maybe hints that even Pepper who is soon be too old still wishes for adoption.

* {{Sequelitis}}: ''Annie 2'' starring Danielle Findley as Annie (and Annie 2, at that), which got heavy interest (read: advance $ale$) from people who wanted to revisit Annie... until it opened. In the end, the creators chose not to subject Broadway to what had gotten silence from angry theater-goers at Kennedy Center, even after alterations.
** Then a second sequel called Annie Warbucks, which has done a little better but it stayed Off Broadway.