The Hindu, 1993
The Convent of Jesus and Mary must be congratulated for mounting an elaborate musical extravaganza on the Kamani stage directed by Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabharwal- a duo, whose earlier production of "Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory," "Jungle Book", "Peter Pan, "Oliver" and "The Little Mermaid" presented by Kids world are remembered by many young ones and their parents.
To handle 135 children in the age group of 6-17 years is no joke. And the way these two directors along with choreographer, Sharmila Kamte, have handled them is something to be seen to be believed. But, of course, the real credit for the success of the show goes to the entire cast and those who worked behind the scenes to make "Annie" a memorable event both for the young and the old who packed the Kamani theatre for all the four shows.
"Annie" is a touching musical written by Thomas Beecham and built around a nine-year old girl who is the centre of whatever fun there is for 50 little girls in an orphanage run by a drunkard, Miss Hannigan, Delighfully played by Tara Baswani. Annie has often tried to escape but is always caught and brought back to the orphanage. One day a billionaire's secretary Grace (Naomi Ann Lobo) arrives at the orphanage to take someone home for Oliver Warbuck (Hemlata Narasimhan) who needs and orphan for a week in the house to build up his political image, Annie is chosen by Grace.
In no time she has the entire household dancing around her. The young audience joins in the fun with Annie and Punjab (Sunali Khanna), Warbuck's bodyguard and Cheung-Mai (Aradhana Khaitan) the karate expert to bring the house down. Warbuck decides to adopt Annie but Miss Hannigan with her villain-brother Rooster (Gayatri Goswami) and his girl friend Eliza (Jahnvi Johri) hatches a plot to blackmail Warbuck by faking her brother and his girl friend as Annie's parents. But all is well that ends well when Annie's friends expose her evil designs and have the young audience jumping out of their seats.
The music by Joe and Babush Santana and Company builds up the right tempo. What its more the rendering of the songs by a large group of playback singers is excellent. While the credit for this beautiful production goes to the young players, it would be unfair if special attention were not given to Surbhi Bansali, Tara Baswani, Naomi Ann Lobo, Gayatri Goswami, Jahnvi Johri, Sunali Khanna, Aradhana Khaitan Hemlata Narashimhan, Diksha Chopra, Smita Pahwa and Sonali Verma who all act like born actresses. Once again well done girls! Keep it up, and we hope to see many of you on the Delhi stage in the years to come.