Annie (1999 Television Film)  (Audio CD) 
by Martin Charnin

The cast of Disney's 1999 television production of Annie reads like a who's who of Tony winners: Grace is played by Audra McDonald (Ragtime, Carousel, Master Class), Rooster is Alan Cumming (Cabaret), and Lily is Kristin Chenoweth (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown). Add Alicia Morton (Young Cosette in Broadway's Les Misérables) in the title role and Victor Garber (Sweeney Todd, Assassins) as Daddy Warbucks, and you have a cast that is refreshingly not driven by Hollywood box office, other than Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan.

Resumés aside, how is the soundtrack? Well, McDonald might be a touch operatic and Garber a little young, but these are minor quibbles with a cast that is effective throughout (even Bates). Morton might not be the belter Andrea McArdle was in the original cast, but she's very good, and if anything the difference makes her sound like the little girl she is. Perhaps the best moment is McArdle--still sounding great at the ripe old age of 35--making a brief cameo as the star-to-be in "N.Y.C." Longtime fans of the show will notice that, in order to fit a two-hour prime-time window, the production had to leave out most of the historical context of the FDR administration ("A New Deal for Christmas," "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"), as well as some other familiar numbers ("You Won't Be an Orphan for Long," "Annie"). This soundtrack is thus best considered a souvenir of the television production or a complement to, rather than a replacement for, the original cast recording. --David Horiuchi