INTERVIEW: Beth Leavel loves the villainy of Miss Hannigan in Paper Mill’s ‘Annie’

There are few musicals as iconic as Annie, which is being revived through the end of the year by the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. And there are few villains as iconic as Miss Hannigan, who runs the orphanage that houses the title character.

Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) is the latest actor to take on the role, and she’s loving every last bit of it.

“I have a relationship with some of the people at Paper Mill Playhouse doing Boeing-Boeing, and Bandstand previewed there before it went to Broadway,” Leavel said in a recent phone interview. “And I heard they were doing Annie, and I was lucky enough that they just asked me to do it. And I jumped at it because it’s one of my favorite roles ever. … I can’t really think of a better way to spend my holidays than at Paper Mill doing this classic role in this fantastic musical.”

Leavel, who also played on Broadway in Baby It’s You, Elf, Mamma Mia! and Young Frankenstein, said the audience loves to hate Miss Hannigan, and that’s fine by her. “It’s fascinating,” she said. “I think she’s one of the best villains that you love to hate ever written, and there’s a very fine line between being truthful with her and embracing your inner clown and serving the story. It’s really fun to explore, but I do love it that even under all her villainess, she has this little kernel of goodness that comes out every once in a while. And that makes it fun to explore and play every night.”

The musical features a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin. Leavel’s role dominates Act I, when Annie finds herself in the orphanage before being adopted by Oliver Warbucks (Christopher Sieber).

In Act I, Leavel sings two of the musical’s most famous numbers: “Easy Street” and “Little Girls.” “Act II has a little reprise of ‘Easy Street’ and some funny comedy bits where she gets her comeuppance, but, yeah, Act I is my heavy act,” she said. “It’s fun to do. It’s easy for me as a storyteller when the material is so good. You just kind of have to sing it. You don’t have to improve it. You don’t have to embellish it. You just have to make sure you serve the brilliant stuff that Charles Strouse has done, and that’s quite easy to do, particularly with little girls. It sets up the scene, and you just literally move the plot forward, tell a little something about Miss Hannigan and how she feels about little girls.”

Leavel worked with the director, Mark S. Hoebee, on the staging for Miss Hannigan’s scenes. The team went over plans in the brainstorming phase, blocked the scenes, lit the stage, and the rest was up to Leavel’s performance.

Aiding Leavel on the Paper Mill stage is the troupe of young girls, including Peyton Ella and Cassidy Pry alternating in the title role.

“They’re more professional than I am actually,” Leavel said with a laugh. “They have such a great work ethic, and they love it. I love being around kids that haven’t been in show business all their life. They’re just so pure in their essence of how much they love singing and musicals and Annie, and it just lightens my soul to be around them and see the joy through them again.”

It’s not Leavel’s first time at the Paper Mill Playhouse. In fact, she was recently on the stage with the pre-Broadway transfer of the new musical Bandstand. The experience of acting in that military-centered show was a positive one for the actor, even if the New York City run was cut short this past summer.

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “That said, I thought it also was miraculous that it had its run at Paper Mill and so quickly in the world of Broadway musicals transferred to Broadway, got a theater. The stars aligned where [director-choreographer] Andy Blankenbuehler and everyone else was available. … Last season was a very dense season for wonderful musicals, and that we ran as long as we did, I was grateful for. It’s one of those shows, and I hope it goes on the road because it speaks to so many in a different way. It has such a singular voice, so we were very sad when it closed, but glad that it actually came to Broadway and so many people did see it and were so affected by it. Even leaving Annie, doing Miss Hannigan, I get, ‘Thank you for Bandstand,’ so we’re very grateful for that.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Annie is currently running at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.