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Health & Fitness

Annie is coming to Seven Angels

Seven Angels Community Theater presents the beloved musical

Seven Angels Stage 2 Community Theatre in Waterbury will be presenting the often-produced musical Annie this month. The first thing I did when I heard this was to check with my friend Gary Rosengrant to see if he was going to be playing a role in it. I last saw Gary in last year’s excellent production of My Fair Lady at Seven Angels where he had to repeatedly change costumes for several small roles throughout the show. His answer was that he was “just in the chorus,” but I suspected that he would again have a few lines. He assured me that the kids in the show would be worth the price of admission and told me of the challenges of rehearsing with “Sandy” the dog played by Dakota the dog.

On WZBG Backstage with Johnny O’s September 3 podcast, WATR’s Tom Chute spoke of the challenges of directing the show while making an unscheduled cameo as FDR. He called it “a bit of extra work,” but if anyone can pull this off, it is Mr. Chute. He told listeners that 60 girls auditioned for the title role and 15 were chosen to be in the show, while about 20 talented adults are also in the cast. One of the latter is the personable Chuck Stango, who recently directed the amazing and deftly wrangled 90 K – 8 students. Some of these students urged Mr. Stango to audition for Annie and he finally decided to try out for the part of Rooster, but ended up being cast as Daddy Warbucks. This role requires a bald head, but this actor acknowledged that “God’s got that well underway.” He called the 11-year-old actress chosen to play the title role a “wunderkind” and mentioned that “Mr. Seven Angels” Don Leona is hilarious in various roles.

My youngest and I have tickets for opening night and I will be posting my review soon after.

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This family favorite that was originally presented at Connecticut’s own Goodspeed Opera House runs at September 9 -18. Some of the proceeds help support WATR’s Sunshine Fund and in the past they have raised between $10,000 and $12,000 for charity. Performances are Friday and Saturday night at a kid-friendly 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

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