Annie!

I remember the first time that I saw "Annie" on stage. I think I was about 9. It was at the old Triad Center, on their outdoor stage, and again, my friend Stephanie Place was with me, and my brothers Jordan and Matthew and my mom and dad. I had seen the movie in the theater when it came out 3 or 4 years before that. I remember thinking the whole time - even though my mom had explained to me - that Annie's hair didn't look like it was suppose to, it wasn't curly, not at all, it bothered me. I also remember waiting for the song "Dumb Dog," they never did it. And there were songs in the play that weren't in the movie such as: "NYC" and "We'd like to thank you Herbert Hoover." But then I realized, movies and plays are very different, and usually the plays are much better. Now, whenever I see Annie the play, I think, "Oh man, they really shouldn't curl her hair." But then again, she wouldn't be "Little Orphan Annie" without the curls.

Fast Forward to sometime in March 2008:
While we were doing Charlotte's Web, we noticed all of the advertisements for Annie. Piper kept asking me if we could go see it, so finally I looked it up on the Kingsbury Hall website and found out how much it was. I told Piper that unfortunately we wouldn't be able to go. And of course my cute little Piper said that it was okay. But, I could see in her eyes that she really wanted to go, so I apologized profusely, and still she kept saying that it was okay, without a tear or anything. I was dieing inside, because I knew what she really wanted.

Fast Forward to Wednesday April 9, 2008:
I was watching "Good Things Utah" when I noticed (I guess I wasn't really watching, I just had it on) a man talking about Annie. It was David Barton, the man who plays Daddy Warbucks. I decided right then that I was going to buy tickets while Piper was at Theatre School later that afternoon. Kingsbury Hall is just a couple of blocks away from where Theatre School is. So I did. I got tickets for Thursday Night. I didn't tell Piper.

Thursday April 10, 2008:
Aaron was in class, so I made grilled cheese sandwiches for me and the kidlets (they did have butternut squash in them....delicious), when we were done eating, I told Piper to run upstairs and get her Easter dress on, but to put her red sweater on with it (it was cold). She looked at me all weird and said, "Why?"
"Because me and you are going to go somewhere special."
And of course my sweet little Piper says, "But what about Teague?"
Teague jumped right into the conversation and said, "It's okay, I'm going to Grammies."
So she ran upstairs and got dressed while I cleaned up. Then I got dressed and did Piper's hair. We were all ready to go, so we had Teague take this picture of us. (pretty good for a four -almost five- year old)


Then we dropped Teague off at Grammies. While we were there, Grammie said to Piper, "You sure look pretty, where are you going?" (she knew that Piper had no idea).
"I don't know!"

We were off, The whole way there, Piper would come up with these ideas,
"Even if you do guess, I'm not going to tell you that you are right!"

We got up to the U and parked at Rice Eccles Stadium. We got on the shuttle to take us to the Theatre.









We were across the lawn from Kingsbury Hall when Piper looked up at me and said, "Are we going to Annie?"
"I don't know!" But I obviously didn't do a very good job of lying, because she said, "Yes we are, cause we are almost to Kingsbury hall!"
"Okay, you guessed it!"

(This picture was taken right after she said "Kingsbury Hall")


Funny little tidbit about Piper. She doesn't get nervous at auditions, she doesn't get nervous before a performance, she doesn't get nervous in front of people, she doesn't get nervous to talk and pray in church - in fact she loves it, and she always wants to perform for her friends (guitar, sing etc.). But, whenever we go see a live show, she gets nervous. STRANGE.

So, we get off of the shuttle, walk up the stairs to the entrance









and of course I take pictures. And I couldn't resist, I got her a t-shirt, she chose it.

Then we went potty, then we went in and sat down. I splurged on the tickets, we were on row F.

You know what is absolutely fabulous about professional theatre? They start on time. At 7:30 ON THE DOT, the music began to play, Piper looked at me with excitement in her eyes and I nearly cried. How funny that this was such a happy Momma and Piper time.

You know what else is fabulous about professional theatre? Nobody sings like a Mormon pop star (sorry if I offend!) There was no scooping, no runs, just clean pure beautiful notes. This show was fantastic. All of the actors were incredible, even the orphans. The scenery was beautiful, I don't know how traveling shows do this, considering how many stages they perform on throughout the country. In the show there are a few actors that had more than one part. Like Daddy Warbucks staff were also Hooverville-ites and Radio staff, you had no idea (unless you read the playbill), until curtain call, that is how good it was. I am so happy that Piper and I had the opportunity to do this together. I hope that Piper always remembers her first time seeing "Annie" on stage, and I hope that she always appreciates live theatre as much as I do.