It’s a hard-knock life for the Flin Flon Community Choir. The group’s next major musical production will take place next spring - a full-scale rendition of the Broadway classic Annie.
The official announcement took place June 27 during a celebration of the work of Crystal and Mark Kolt at the Rotary Wheel - the Flin Flon Community Choir’s float in the Canada Day parade July 1 featured members getting the word out more widely, holding up a placard reading “Next musical is…. Annie” for parade-goers.
For the Flin Flon Community Choir, it will be the first major show organized since 2023’s edition of Mary Poppins. It will also be the first show of its kind done without long-time conductor Crystal Kolt at the baton - choir director Angela Ishaka will conduct the choir and oversee production. Casting calls for the production will go out later this year, along with official rehearsal schedules and dates for the performance.
“Angela will be conducting the choir, which she has done so well. It’s going to be a team effort,” said Kolt, who will stay on as an advisor and assistant for the project.
“I feel so strongly, knowing how big these projects are, that it would be meanspirited to not provide all the help and experience that I’ve learned over the years, just to feel that support - you learn a few tricks of the trade over the years.”
The musical itself, written by Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse and based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, first opened on Broadway in 1977. Since then, it has been produced thousands of times around the world, including during several on-and-off-Broadway revivals, cross-American tours, sequels and films. The role of the spunky orphan Annie has launched careers for young singers and actors alike, while songs like “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life” have become standard parts of the great American songbook. The New York Times estimates Annie is performed as many as 900 times a year throughout the U.S.
Part of why the musical has become so popular is a relatively simple production process - instead of taking years to clear and organize, such as the choir’s 2019 production of Mamma Mia, Annie takes much less time for clearance, said Kolt.
“It was quicker because it’s not as restricted, like something like Phantom of the Opera would be. That was good. We were confident we could get a hold of the rights for that,” said Kolt.
Despite the clearances being easy to get, the show will still be complicated, featuring a full orchestra, a new cast of characters and new people helping run the show. That will include new directors for both the choir and the show itself, said Kolt. Long-time director Ann Hodges will not be returning for next year’s show, to be replaced with another professional director whose identity has not yet been publicly confirmed.
The choir hosts a major musical performance every two years, with the pandemic cancelling the planned 2021 show. Other productions include Mamma Mia, Chicago, Grease, The Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and several others, including the original work Bombertown - while no announcement has yet been made, a remake of Bombertown may be scheduled to be the choir’s 2027 show, pending any changes.
The cast for the show features many young performers, particularly Annie, who is portrayed as being 11 years old during the events of the show. Hosting a production of Annie requires a large and talented cast of children. Kolt feels Flin Flon’s young artists will be up to the task - so much so that having a bevy of young talent helped inspire choosing Annie as the show to do in the first place.
“I think it’s going to be a really wonderful choice. There’s so many great young actresses out right now - that’s going to be the director that will be coming in and doing it. It will be a professional casting all, as always,” said Kolt.
“There’s so much young talent here. That was a reason for hosting Annie as well - there are other musicals where there are less roles for kids. If you look at The Sound of Music, for instance, there are six kids - but what about all the other kids in the community who want to be part of something? For this show, there are choruses of children who can be part of this.”
Further information about performance and casting dates will be released leading up to the designated show time, which will likely be in May 2025.
