Annie: the 20th Anniversary info!!
A 20th anniversary Broadway revival, which played at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1997, entitled Annie, the 20th Anniversary, starred Nell Carter as Miss Hannigan, but controversy surrounded the casting of the titular character. The original actress cast in the role, Joanna Pacitti, was fired and replaced by her understudy, Brittny Kissinger(who usually played orphan July) just two weeks before her Broadway debut, while battling bronchitis in Boston. The Pre-Broadway Tour was playing the Colonial Theatre. 'Annie' Understudy and Swing Orphan Alexandra Keisman performed the role the first night Pacitti was absent. The producers then gave Kissinger the next performance. The show then moved on to the Oakdale in Connecticut where an insert was placed in the Playbill claiming "The Role of Annie is now being played by Brittny Kissinger". Public sentiment seemed to side with Pacitti as she was the winner of a highly-publicized contest to find a new Annie sponsored by the department store Macy's. This incident, coupled with the mixed reviews the new staging garnered, doomed it to a short run, although it was followed by a successful national tour. Kissinger, then 8, became the youngest actress to ever play Annie on Broadway.
More controversy surrounding the show involved Nell Carter. Carter reportedly was very upset when commercials promoting the show used a different actress, Marcia Lewis, a white actress, as Miss Hannigan. The producers claimed that the commercials, which were made during an earlier production, were too costly to reshoot. Carter felt that racism played a part in the decision. "Maybe they do not want audiences to know Nell Carter is black", she told the New York Post. However, the ads did mention that Carter was in the show. "It hurts a lot", Carter told the Post, "I've asked them nicely to stop it — it's insulting to me as a black woman." Later reports stated that "Nell Carter of Broadway's 'Annie' denied Thursday that she called her show's producers racist because they chose to air commercials featuring a previous Miss Hannigan--who is white--instead of her." Her statement, released by the Associated Press, read: " 'Yes, it is true that I and my representatives have gone to management on more than one occasion about the commercial and were told that there was nothing they could do about it,' Carter said in a statement Thursday. 'Therefore, I have resigned myself to the fact that this is the way it is.' The statement also addressed the alleged charges of racism, first published in Thursday's New York Post. Carter is black. 'I, Nell Carter, never, ever, ever accused my producers or anyone in the show of racism,' she said. Producers have said it is too expensive to film a new commercial." Carter was later replaced by another white actress,Sally Struthers. The revival closed on October 19, 1997 after 14 previews and 239 performances.