Annie returning to its Goodspeed Opera House birthplace: Musical to run Oct. 30 to Dec. 27
- Peter Marteka
- Aug 29
- 4 min read
By Peter Marteka
Editor
Goodspeed Musicals Founding Director Michael P. Price recalls walking in a London Park with his wife Jo-Ann pushing his son Daniel in a stroller.
“I was humming a tune,” he recalled, “and Jo-Ann said, ‘You know what that’s from?’ I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And she said, ‘Why don’t you try to put it together again?’”
That tune was from Annie and Price put it together again with the musical debuting Aug. 10, 1976. On Aug. 10, 2026, Price stood in front of the Goodspeed Opera House, 50 years since the debut of the musical. The New York Times saw it and wrote, “This is one that ain’t crossing the river.” The Hartford Courant saw it and wrote - “almost nothing works.”
“But we spent the next couple of weeks trimming the show down, moved scenery out so it moved along nicely and invited the critics back,” Price recalled. “And you know the rest is history. It was all positive from that point on.”
How positive? Annie hit Broadway in April 1977 for 2,300 performances. There have been two revivals. There were four visits to the West End. There were two major movies, a television movie and a live television performance.
“We are here today because a little red head stole our hearts,” said Goodspeed Managing Director Vanessa Logan.
Goodspeed Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton said Annie “made history” that August day.
“Annie has become an important part of Goodspeed’s history,” she said. “Annie put Goodspeed Musicals on the map. Other musicals have moved from this beautiful building to Broadway prior to Annie, but this one was different. This one reached around the world.”
And back home again as Annie will celebrate that anniversary with performances Oct. 30 through Dec. 27 at Goodspeed. Laiken Jules will be the one escaping Miss Hannigan’s orphanage in search of her parents and finding a new family with her mutt Sandy and billionaire Oliver Warbucks. Timeless songs include “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” and “Maybe.” And some new stuff.
“It was the magic of this theater, this beautiful Victorian gem, that we were able to do Annie again and again and through the movies and Broadway revivals,” Price said. “We have lots of memories of every Annie production. Any production you see this year will be different than the Annie of 50 years ago.
“And different from the Broadway shows,” he added. “Because in producing a new musical whenever you do it, it’s a new project, a new approach to the show. When I was a stage manager, instead of saying ‘Places!’ I would say, ‘It’s magic time!’”
From Goodspeed, 21 musicals have gone to Broadway (including Man of La Mancha, Annie, Shenandoah and Holiday Inn) and 91 world premieres have been launched. The latest world premiere is The Snow Goose running from Aug. 28 to Oct. 18.
“Goodspeed has never stepped away from a commitment to new work,” Hilton said. “Snow Goose is the next exciting chapter in that commitment.”
“One of the reasons Annie is so important to Goodspeed is that it was a brand new musical that made its way on stages around the world...Oh my goodness do we love Annie. Annie has become one of the most globally performed American musicals and has been translated into 30 different languages. Annie is a mega hit,” added Logan, noting 20 different producers said no to the musical before Price took a chance.
Besides Annie, the other showstopper is Sandy. That job was for Bill Berloni, a theatrical animal trainer and animal rescue advocate. He’s also the same guy who found the original Sandy in 1976. For the new production, Berloni found Scotty, a mutt from a shelter in Port Charlotte, FL.
“If he [Price] had said to me, ‘50 years from now kid you’re going to be doing the exact same thing in the exact some theater’ I wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are. That journey has been something special. It has changed my life for the better,” he said.
Berloni said the original Sandy was very much like Scotty with the same color and scraggly airplane ears. The original Sandy was also found in a shelter – only days before scheduled to be put to sleep.
“One thing we decided to do was always use rescue dogs,” he said. “I remember making a promise to my 19-year-old self if I ever get a dog, I’m going to rescue it. Little did I know that was going to be my legacy.”
Berloni said after looking at many dogs on the internet and in person, when he saw Scotty’s picture in the shelter it reminded him so much of the original Sandy. He called it “more of an emotional decision than it was actually a training decision.”
“So, when we saw Scotty for the first time in the shelter, he was outgoing. He was friendly. There were strangers everywhere. It was stressful and he was just like wagging his tail being silly and I thought, ‘Well, that’s a good start.’ He’s a young boy and he just needs someone to give him a job.”
Berloni called Goodspeed a “house of dreams.”
“It creates art. It revives the art of the musical theater from the old days,” he said. “It gives artists, writers, composers and dog trainers the opportunity to try something in a safe environment and then go on to do wonderful things. And now you’ve got this dog who has never been on stage and this child [Jules] who has never had a dog.”