Last night (30 November 2017), the West End cast of Annie officially welcomed Meera Syal, playing Miss Hannigan, to the hit Piccadilly Theatre musical.
Nikolai Foster’s West End production of Annie opened in May of this year with Miranda Hart as Miss Hannigan. In September, Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood joined the company to play the role, before Syal began performances as the mean-spirited orphanage owner at the beginning of this week.
Syal celebrated with friends and family, with celebrity guests including Lolita Chakrabarti, Sean Foley, Nitin Ganatra, Twiggy and Leigh Lawson and Nicola Walker, as well as fellow cast members, at the conclusion of the performance. Syal will play the role of Miss Hannigan for the duration of the run which concludes, as previously announced, on 18 February 2018 at the Piccadilly Theatre.
Meera Syal as Miss Hannigan at the Annie media night
Meera Syal (Miss Hannigan) and the West End cast of Annie at the Piccadilly Theatre
Following the conclusion of the West End run Annie will embark on a five week visit to the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto.
British comedian, actor and writer Syal was last on stage earlier this year in A Profoundly Affectionate, Passionate Devotion To Someone (-Noun) at the Royal Court Theatre; her previous theatre credits include Romeo & Juliet (Garrick Theatre) and Behind The Beautiful Forevers (National Theatre). On television, she is best known for her work in the BBC comedy The Kumars At No. 42. She was made an MBE in 1997 and a CBE in 2015.
Meera Syal as Miss Hannigan in Annie
Annie is set in 1930s New York during The Great Depression, where the brave young titular orphan is forced to live a life of misery and torment at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Her luck changes when she is chosen to spend Christmas at the residence of famous billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Meanwhile, spiteful Miss Hannigan has other ideas and hatches a plan to spoil Annie’s search for her true family…
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