Annie

The world-wide phenomenon at the Isle of Man Gaiety Theatre!

Featuring some of the greatest musical hits ever written, including:

⭑ Tomorrow
⭑ It’s The Hard-Knock Life
⭑ Little Girls
⭑ Easy Street

With equal measures of pluck and positivity, little orphan Annie charms everyone’s hearts despite a next-to-nothing start in 1930s New York City. She is determined to find her parents who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of a New York City Orphanage run by the cruel, embittered Miss Hannigan. With the help of the other girls in the Orphanage, Annie escapes to the wondrous world of NYC.

In adventure after fun-filled adventure, Annie foils Miss Hannigan’s evil machinations.

Annie is the perfect family-friendly fun musical!

Music by Charles Strouse;
Lyrics by Martin Charnin;
Book by Thomas Meehan

“When we ponder how brightly the future of Manx musical theatre may shine, we don’t need to wait until tomorrow to discover.”

“All of the cast were amazing, but Annie - what a voice and actress. 5 stars doesn’t do it justice, if we could give 10, we would!”

“Absolutely blown away by all the talented kids. Well done to all involved.”

“Fantastic! The best show we’ve seen in a long time!”

“Best show I’ve seen in ages. So great to have a live orchestra too.”

NODA Award Nominations

Cast

Adult Company

Children

Team Warbucks

Team Warbucks Ensemble

Team Grace

Team Grace Ensemble

Production Team

About Tony

Tony is a graduate from the Guildford School of Acting and Dance, and splits his time between acting and directing in equal measure, having worked in venues including The National Concert Hall (Dublin), The Gaiety Theatre (Dublin and the Isle of Man), Landskrona Theatre (Sweden), The Waterfront Theatre (Belfast), and Opera Houses in Belfast, Wexford and Buxton.

In 2014 Tony was the creative director for two “TV Specials” filmed by the BBC for PBS America, recorded live from The Grand Opera House, one of which won 4 Emmy’s in the 2015 awards ceremony in the USA. The Christmas Special was aired on BBC and the other one-hour special is currently playing to 300 million viewers in the USA.

Tony is co-director of Festival Productions which produces quality musicals in the National Concert Hall, Dublin and the newly appointed Wexford Opera House. For Festival Productions Tony has played The King in the King and I, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Professor Henry Higgins’ in My Fair Lady and King Arthur in Camelot, to great acclaim. He has also directed Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music, Annie, Bugsy Malone and The Pirates of Penzance for the company. His favourite acting roles include Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, The Major-General in same show (National Concert Hall, Dublin and the Opera House in Buxton), Pooh Bah in The Mikado (National Concert Hall, Dublin and the Opera House in Buxton), Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin), Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (National Concert Hall, Dublin and the Grand Opera House in Belfast), Fagin in Oliver! (National Concert Hall, Dublin) and Daddy Warbucks in Annie (National Concert Hall, Dublin).

Tony has also adjudicated the Waterford International Festival and had a very successful trip to Buxton, adjudicating the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. In 2013 he returned to the Festival in Buxton performing in The Mikado (Pooh Bah) for Lyric Opera Productions, Dublin.

Tony has been associated with winning the G and S Festival four years in a row – performing in all four winning shows and co-producing the 3 Festival Productions, Dublin shows and directing the winning Pirates of Penzance for New Lyric Opera Company in the 4th year.

About Sonia

Sonia’s first show at the Gaiety Theatre was with the Douglas Choral Union many moons ago, and since then has worked with them in various guises such as: choreographer, stage manager and assistant director on Les Misérables (2009), Miss Saigon (2012) and most recently The Producers (2017).

Since 2005, Sonia has been Musical Theatre Coach with Jacqui Hawkes at Stage One Drama School – a job she thoroughly enjoys, helping children gain a passion for performing and being involved in the theatre.

A third of DreamStar IoM Productions, along with David Artus and Gary Chatel, who have produced a number of pantomimes at the Gaiety over the last few years.

As a performer, Sonia has enjoyed playing: Felicia Gabriel in The Witches of Eastwick; Miss Flannery in Thoroughly Modern Millie; The Nurse and Widow Simone in The Manx Ballet Company’s production of Romeo & Juliet and La Fille Mal Gardee respectively; Janette in The Full Monty; and Roz in 9 to 5.

Sonia is looking forward to joining the production team of Annie.

About Ruth

Ruth was born dancing! Training and then going on to work professionally as a performer and choreographer in numerous productions, films and dance videos before qualifying as a dance teacher. Ruth then taught at a full time vocational dance school whilst leading courses in Performing arts at East Kent College to degree level before moving to the Island in 2016.

About Claire

Claire studied Flute and Sax at Trinity College of Music and worked as a freelance musician and teacher in London before moving to the Isle of Man.

As Head of Music at St Ninian’s High School, she has put on several shows including ‘Grease’, ‘Honk!’, ‘13’ (UK School Premiere), ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’, and ‘Annie Jr.’

Claire has had the opportunity to be Musical Director for several shows at the Gaiety including ‘Grease’ and ‘The Sound of Music’ (Parker & Snell), ‘Mulan’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ pantomime (JT Productions). With Stage Door Entertainment, Claire has been part of ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Change’, ‘For Tonight’ and ‘Battle of the Boat’ and she has played the role of Assistant Musical Director for Douglas Choral Union’s ‘The Producers’ and ‘Miss Saigon.’ She is also a regular in the Gaiety pit, most recently playing in the Orchestra for ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’

Claire was most recently the Musical Director for her first show with Centre Stage Productions in 2019, ‘The Addams Family – A New Musical’ and was nominated for a NODA award for this position.