Do we need the optimism of ‘Annie’ now more than ever?

Dark times call for bright spirits, high levels of optimism and a can-do attitude. But when it comes to psychic healing, one size does not always fit all.

The creative staff at Milwaukee’s Skylight Music Theatre is banking on the positive impact of its year-end production of the musical Annie — both in terms of box office returns and as a balm for a human spirit battered by social unrest, mass shootings and other chaos unfolding in the shadow of a questionable presidential administration.

The ebullient musical’s family-friendly nature and hummable signature tune “Tomorrow” will likely attract greater audience interest than the previous seasons’ holiday shows My Fair Lady and La Cages Aux Folles, according to Skylight Artistic Director Ray Jivoff.

But as a true spirit-lifter, some say the musical adaptation of a 1920s comic-strip character from another time and a very different America falls short in its role as a universal antidote for modern-day despair.

“We need Annie’s optimism now more than ever,” writes Molly Rhode, the show’s director, in her program notes for the production.

Certainly, it couldn’t hurt.

But how effective the character’s youthful naiveté can be in truly making us feel better is another question altogether.

It always was ‘a hard-knock life’

Thomas Meehan’s 1976 musical version of Annie was not constructed from whole cloth. Its characters and narrative date back to 1924, when cartoonist Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie first graced the pages of the New York Daily News.

Rescued from a dreary Dickensian orphanage by the wealthy — but ultimately mean-spirited — Mrs. Warbucks, the little girl with curly red hair is brought home on a trial basis.

The cold-hearted society matron is decidedly unmoved by the wretched waif, but her war-profiteer husband Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks is immediately enchanted with Annie’s friendliness and positive spirit. Despite the wife’s opposition, Annie is there to stay — and for almost 90 years graced the pages of the nation’s newspapers, film and her own radio serial.

Before the strip was discontinued by owner Tribune Media Services in 2010, Annie became a fairly influential ward to Warbucks. Gray contrived to put her in a variety of situations that allowed her to influence the economy and politics, as well as help social underdogs both here and overseas during World War II.

She also became the voice for Gray’s political leanings, which included concern over wealth disparity, the rise of fascism and later communism, and even the atomic bomb. Despite his seeming socialistic leanings, the cartoonist disliked Franklin Roosevelt to the point of killing off Daddy Warbucks, whom he believed could not coexist with the president’s New Deal politics.

‘Particularly compelling right now’

Many of those political and social aspects, distilled into a more compact characterization for the musical, are what attracted Rhode to the production.

“I find the show particularly compelling right now because of the specific social issues it highlights,” she says, “including income disparity, the haves versus the have-nots, political access had by the wealthy, a populace that feels forgotten, and buyer’s remorse from a previous presidential election.”

Jivoff agrees. “We’re divided more dramatically than ever at the same time as we are more saturated with information than ever. 

“Here’s a show with a billionaire as a central character who learns empathy from a child,” he adds. “The creators of the musical had a message to offer, which is that wealth is meaningless unless it is used to improve the lives of others.”

But things are different now

Good thoughts all, but even the most loudly sung chorus of “Tomorrow” is not likely to provide comfort to today’s socially afflicted people, according to Joe Austin, associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“Today we need Annie more than ever?” Austin asks. “I would be hard-pressed to affirm the thesis, I am sorry to say.”

Hard times have always been part and parcel of American life for some segments of society, Austin stresses. In many ways, times were much harder during Annie’s formative years than they are now.

Economic conditions during the Great Depression — a global phenomenon during which the U.S. gross domestic product dropped by half — have never been matched by even the worst U.S. recessions experienced by current generations. Despite long wars in the Middle East, nothing has matched the inhumanity, loss of life and global destruction of World War II.

“The key historical issue here is about what the future looked like during the Great Depression and what the future looks like now,” Austin says. “I would argue that ‘tomorrow’ is important to Annie because she has little or nothing in the present. ‘Tomorrow’ is all she has, and so that is where her hope must be found, because the present was a catastrophe.”

Popular entertainment of the day stressed the positivity of a brighter future and the importance of hope, Austin says, because there was little else to cling to. But society and the government also had a completely different take on social responsibility, which today makes Annie’s ebullience a mere flicker in the face of what seems to be a blinding opposition by government and others to serving fellow human beings.

“The despair of the Great Depression and the early years of World War II were quite different from the current despair,” Austin says. “The New Deal programs demonstrated that the nation and the government cared about the common people more than the wealthy. The shared sense that the American common man’s suffering originated not in his personal flaws, but for reasons that were beyond his control, and the national unity of the war effort, all pushed many suffering citizens towards each other as a source of common strength.”

The economic suffering of today is not nearly so widespread as it was during the Great Depression, Austin notes. Corrupt business practices and flaws in the free-market economy, seen as the cause of the Depression, today are heralded as society’s saviors. Moreover, individual and family flaws, not social forces, are currently being blamed as primary contributors to social decay.

Add to that equation a divided nation living in different realities with little indication that the divisions will end soon; fears that the future is imperiled by dramatic, planet-wide climate changes arising from our standard of living; and the exhaustion and elimination of any real alternatives to globalization shaping our national economy. The result, Austin says, is a bleak outlook.

“The sense that ‘we are all in this together’ is not there to brighten ‘tomorrow,” he adds. “Today’s ‘tomorrow’ looks a lot like today, only worse.”

Rebuilding social capital

Steven McMurtry, director of UWM’s social welfare Ph.D. program and faculty member at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, agrees.

“We’re in a period of uncertainty. Where do I connect?” McMurtry asks. “In the past I knew my next door neighbor and could count on him to shovel my sidewalk if needed. Today’s social capital has become more tenuous.”

The decline in participation in social groups as mundane as bowling leagues and knitting circles points to the increasing isolation and lack of community support we all feel, he says. It’s also a signal of a more widespread loss in social capital that historically has kept communities afloat.

Like Austin, McMurtry is skeptical of Annie’s influence in affecting public attitudes and outcomes in any meaningful way. But the academician is hopeful.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for Little Orphan Annie and I think it would be great if people attending the performances would come out believing that a blast from the past would have relevance today,” McMurtry says. “But we also have to find different messages to make people better come together as a community.”

Jivoff hopes his Skylight’s production of Annie will do its part. What is theater if not a chance to share an experience with strangers, if only for an evening, that taps emotional wellsprings in largely positive ways?

But Jivoff also would be happy if audiences walked out smiling and maybe humming the signature tune. That is theater’s way of helping build a community of support, he says.

“The fact that the show features a strong girl character who is smart, courageous and independent is also special,” Jivoff notes.

On stage

Skylight Music Theatre’s production of Annie runs Nov. 17–Dec. 27 at the Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. Tickets are $32–$77 and can be purchased by phoning the box office at 414-291-7800 or online at tickets.broadwaytheatrecenter.com.