LOOK AT ‘ANNIE’ IS ‘HARD’ TO TAKE
DOC ON THE MUSICAL IS A ONE-NOTE AFFAIR
YOU REALLY hate to pick on cute pre-teen orphans.
You also hate to overdose on them.
“It’s the Hard Knock Life,” a documentary on casting the title role in a revival of the musical “Annie,” comes off as the PBS version of a reality show.
That’s not PBS’ fault, exactly. The pervasiveness of reality shows these days makes some of their tone rub off on wellmeaning documentaries.
More to the point here, though, “Hard Knock Life” just isn’t all that interesting.
The casting process itself is inherently tedious, at least as spectator sport. Hopefuls stand around for hours, get a heartbeat to show t hei r stuff, t hen leave and wait.
T he pro - ducers of this documentary try to enliven it by talking with lots of girls who’d love to be Annie. It’s a multicultural bunch, which is the cool part, but still, in the end, there aren’t that many variations on the theme of “I’ve wanted to play Annie ever since I first saw the show when I was 6!”
Hearing what the producers want, then watching the girls try to replicate it, will be fascinating only to those who cannot see “Annie” too many times.
For those who saw it once, thought it was cute and won’t see it again until they have a child or grandchild in tow, this won’t rekindle the flame.
And not to pile on, but it would have been good to hear something other than the title song sung and played over and over. And over and over.
It’s a perfectly decent song, but hearing snatches of it a hundred times makes you start feeling empathy for Oliver Twist.
Or, much worse, wonder if Honey Boo Boo is in the house.