Kristin Vigard was originally chosen to play Annie, but after only a few performances, she was replaced by Andrea McArdle, who gave the role a tougher veneer (reminiscent of the Our Gang kids) while conveying vulnerability without sentimentality. And McArdle's belting exceeded everyone's wildest imagination. She transformed the writers' initial conception of Annie as a spirited but vocally average little girl into a Broadway diva.
For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales;
What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales,
What ſhippis are ſailing to Scalis Malis?
And all is not worth a couple of nut ſhalis.
A small formation of hadedahs, four or five of them, flew past overhead, shrieking their wild death-cries across the valley.
The Colewort's rankness, but with amorous twine / Clasps the tall Elm