Just the ticket as Annie wins its week back at the box office

Which came as news to those who have a Playhouse brochure, because that was the date it was always due to run until.

It transpires that back in October, the decision makers were concerned about ticket sales which were at the time 50 per cent behind previous years’ Christmas shows. Theatre bosses took the final week of the run of Annie off sale – with hopes that it could be reinstated.

The good news arrived this week, then, that the show will go on until the original finish date – thanks partly to a glut of five star reviews following opening night.Director Nikolai Foster, when we met during the third week of rehearsals back in November, was always quietly confident his show would go on.

The young director has had previous success at the theatre with his productions of Animal Farm, Bollywood Jane and A Christmas Carol. When we met, despite admitting my own reservations about watching another version of Annie (I have two younger sisters – it was on rotation in our house with The Little Mermaid for years), Foster was adamant that this would be a production that it would be difficult not to enjoy.

“I think you might be surprised,” says Foster when I admit my prejudices about the story of the girl with the curly red hair. “I brought the piece to the Playhouse and, even though there were bits in it that were not necessarily to my taste, at the first read through I thought ‘this has none of the pejorative things that I would pin on Annie’.

“Everyone thinks it’s cheesy, saccharine and all that nonsense, but as soon as we did that read through I thought it felt like a new piece.”

It’s been 10 years since there was a new production of Annie, although a version is planned for Broadway next year. In a time of austerity, a musical set during the Great Depression seems like obvious programming, but audiences were initially slow to part with their cash to buy tickets for the show.

Foster could understand why people were hesitant – before the word of mouth and good reviews spread like wildfire – to buy tickets. “There are a lot of lines that are so cutesy – at the time when they first wrote it, I imagine the writers had these tough New York kids improvising the lines and it was real and visceral and exciting, but maybe 25 years down the line it might seem a bit hackneyed.

“We decided, if it didn’t work, we got rid of it. I’m treating it like a new piece. I understand the labels that are put on this piece, but we’re determined to make something that is better than people’s expectations.”

So would he recommend it, even to someone like me, who admits it isn’t the sort of thing I like?

“Definitely,” was Foster’s uncompromising stance.

The confidence was borne out when, last week, the critics delivered their verdicts. Five stars (Yorkshire Post, Stage, Guardian, The Independent). Four stars (Daily Telegraph, The Times).

The Observer declared of the young cast “Precise, professional, entertaining”, adding “Forget tomorrow, go today”.

Trade newspaper The Stage said: “Cynics will re-assess their views of Annie after seeing this”.

So what had Foster done to garner such high praise?

The Yorkshire Post’s first contact with the Playhouse Christmas production was when we organised for 36 of the orphans plus Sophie Downham and Phoebe Roberts to take part in a photoshoot for our Saturday magazine. Sophie and Phoebe, alternating the title role, seemed exceptionally confident young girls.

“We auditioned 450 young girls from around Yorkshire and we ended up getting the very best we could find,” says Nikolai.

“In fact when they started working with the ‘professional’ members of the cast you could see there was a feeling of ‘we better raise our games here’.”

It was a surprise to hear Foster put such confidence in his young charges, especially Sophie, 11 and Phoebe, 12, knowing that they would have to share the stage – and hold their own – again Duncan Preston as Daddy Warbucks and Emmerdale’s Verity Rushworth as Grace.

That they have done is just one of a number of reasons that the show has received such praise – and the sun will continue to come out – right until January 21.

Tickets 0113 2137700.