The NBC presentation of Annie Live!, a TV broadcast of the 1977 musical Annie, which is based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, has received generally positive reviews from television critics. The creative team includes Thomas Meehan (book), Charles Strouse (music), Martin Charnin (lyrics), Lear deBessonet and Alex Rudzinski (direction), Sergio Trujillo (choreography), Emilio Sosa (costumes), Jason Sherwood (sets), and Stephen Oremus (orchestrations). The cast includes Celina Smith (Annie), Harry Connick Jr. (Daddy Warbucks), Taraji P. Henson (Miss Hannigan), Nicole Scherzinger (Grace), Tituss Burgess (Rooster), Megan Hilty (Lily), Jeff Kready (Bert), and Alan Toy (FDR). Below, Celina Smith leads the orphans in “Hard-Knock Life.”
Deadline (Valerie Complex): So how does it stack up among the rest? Well, it’s somewhere in the middle, with several positive elements and equally negative ones. … The Annie Live! ensemble is simply fantastic. They are the most exciting part of the show and the glue holding the production together. These talented people don’t miss a beat. … Overall, the closing song is the most resplendent number in the whole musical, but that’s how it should be. While Annie Live! doesn’t always fire on all cylinders, a story of hope and belonging is undoubtedly what the country needs right now. And for many Annie fans, this version will hit the spot.
Hollywood Reporter (Daniel Fienberg): With a couple of good performances, one can ignore that Annie is crazily front-loaded and just keeps doing reprises of its three best songs to kill time in its second act. … I also appreciated the lack of distracting stunt casting that has sometimes marred these NBC productions. It was “just” a solid ensemble, presumably plucking many performers off of Broadway as possible. … The audience in the venue was happy to be there and the audience at home was probably happy to have live TV musicals back. And when everybody is happy to be happy, Annie is right in its element.
New York Times (Noel Murray): [Annie Live!] did not radically reimagine or reinterpret the original show … but neither did this version disappoint in any significant way. If anything, after another hard year of Covid restrictions and political upheaval, it was a treat to watch a lot of talented people gather in one place to sing and dance. … Give a lot of credit to NBC’s two winning leads: Celina Smith as the wide-eyed waif Annie and the crooner Harry Connick Jr. as the bossy Daddy Warbucks. … Perhaps it was only proper that this musical about earnest, plain-spoken yearning arrived on TV in 2021. … This show may be dated by design, but when it’s clicking, it can still clear away the cobwebs and the sorrow.
USA Today (Patrick Ryan): If you’re bringing back Annie, you’d better have a star who can shine like the top of the Chrysler Building. … Our skepticism dissipated minutes into the network’s Annie Live! on Thursday night, as young triple threat Celina Smith took the stage to sing “Maybe.” … But not everyone hit home runs. We adore Connick’s honeyed, husky croon, although his stilted acting made Warbucks more awkward than endearing. And while Hannigan is a delicious role … [Henson] swallows the whole proscenium in a shrieking, mugging turn. … What it lacked in style, Annie Live! ultimately made up for in heart, with indelible showtunes and a winning lead performance that left us grinning. And after all, you’re never fully dressed without a smile.