forever annie

killer post by brenner on not only but also which got me thinking about my obsession with annie. not annie hall. not annie potts. and not annie sprinkle. though all three of these annies are spectacular. i'm talking the annie, as in little orphan, as in freakishly talented little girl singers with big dreams. i remember being glued to the tv special on the search for the girl to play annie in the movie. there were two key moments.

first was the boy who auditioned for annie with no irony or self-awareness. he was full on boy and wanted to be annie and his parents drove him there so he could try and be annie and the casting director picked him out to sing tomorrow but he wasn't good enough.

the other key moment was that the final three up for annie were aileen quinn, who landed it, robin ignico, who got cast as duffy, and then this other girl who unfortunately looked too much like aileen so ended up getting cast only as an orphan extra. that's her looking coked up during hard knock life. her going from almost lead of a huge forever famous movie musical to pretending to sleep while standing up still breaks my heart. i hope she went on to do something show businessy and more befitting her talents. though i find her completely convincing as an orphan who was woken up in the middle of the night and forced to clean by carol burnett's miss hannigan.

how many freakishly talented little girls never even get to pretend to sleep while standing up? and how many little boys who dream of being annie never even audition?

and they keep coming. i saw this recording studio and photoshoot ready girl tori kelly on america's most talented kids and she blew me away.  watch her winning number. it may be too late for me to be a freakishly talented little girl or boy, but it's not too late for me to root them on. and maybe someday, i'll get cast for a pivotal role in a huge forever famous movie musical involving pretending to sleep while standing up. i think i saw jeff stryker do that once.

update:  tori kelly has been signed by geffen.  we'll see if an actual cd comes out, but she's good no matter what happens.

Comments

[john]

I too have a thing for Annie! I even have an Annie sticker book and used to have a red "annie" wig. I have no idea where that darn thing is anymore. Messed up!

You're never fully dressed without a smile!

i, too, am an ANNIE freak. more ANNIE.