Not only did I cry when Santana rediscovered her inner child and admit that she's trying to figure out what she wants (because heck, I can relate), but I also marveled at Coach Sue singing "Little Girls" from Annie.
I was in Annie once. Back in elementary school. Sixth grade, to be exact. I played Lily St. Regis. Don't remember who that is? Take a look at this clip. Kristin Chenoweth, the blonde in the pink silk? Yeah. That was me. In sixth grade.
For those of you unfamiliar with Annie, the basic premise is that there's this orphan, see? She gets adopted by this fat cat from 5th Avenue. But Miss Hannigan and her swindling brother, Rooster (along with his new gal, Lily St. Regis), figure they can make Annie's life miserable and also get some money out of the fat cat in the process.
Lily's one of the villains. As a rule, it's always more fun to play a villain than it is to play the hero. Because villains are significantly more interesting. The hero has to be all pure and stuff, but the villain, well, they get to laugh maniacally and torture small animals.
I don't know if you noticed, but Lily's also a total hooker. I knew this in sixth grade. I'm not sure how I knew this, but I did. I ended up wearing a boa that shed feathers EVERYWHERE onstage and off, these killer black boots with pointy toes, and a drawn on beauty mark. Over my real beauty mark. It was definitely the best thing ever. I also attempted an accent and tried to sound like Kristin Chenoweth. I don't know how well I did, but I do remember improvising a line that pissed off Miss Hannigan because well, you never learned Lily's name, and I thought that that was a major oversight of the script writers of Annie Jr.
Speaking of Miss Hannigan...the girl who played her was in my class. She had a killer voice, but she also got stage fright. For some reason, at that time, I didn't really have that problem. I'm not proud of it, but there was a point maybe a month away from the show when I tried to convince her to hand over her part and I could play Miss Hannigan. Because even as a little girl, I was a conniving spotlight-wanter. Because of all that, I should probably add that classmate to the list of people who probably hated me at the time because I was implying that I could play her part better than she was playing it even though sixth grade Brianna just thought she was being nice and doing a favor for a friend by letting her off easy and taking on the burden of a larger role myself. I honestly don't know what in my little sixth grade brain told me that that was okay to do. Given the chance, I would love to apologize for being a jerk, though I probably wouldn't have the guts to do it.
On the bright side, I've grown up, and though I would still kill to play Miss Hannigan, I'm not too fond of the musical she comes from. Maybe it's because I spent WAY too many months listening to the soundtrack on loop or going through my lines in sixth grade. Or maybe it's because if I ever got back into theatre and landed a part in Annie, I would have to reconcile the fact that I'd probably be upstaged and outshone by a little girl and a dog. Yup. Because that's how that musical works.
Happy Friday! [this is when Brianna realizes that it's Friday and she could have read a poem. Oh well...]
"Leapin' lizards!"
- Annie
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