The "Annie" Battle-Axes.

Since my last post, I had a major head-smacking moment.
I'd said that I thought I was done with "Battle-axes from Broadway".
I forgot about Miss Hannigan.
The Queen of the Battle-Axes.
"Annie" has probably provided us with more battle-axes per capita than any other show, considering all the productions and road companies there have been.
I know this because I asked my Siri "Who were all the actresses who played Miss Hannigan?
It directed me to a website called abouttheartists.com.
It had a section devoted totally to Miss Hannigan.
Every replacement, every road company, even every community theater production.
It's a fairly new website, so it's still incomplete.
But it's thorough.
Dorothy Loudon originated the role, and I never previously thought of her as a battle-axe.
But it turns out that she sort of WAS one in real life.
At least to the extent that she hated kids.
Hated being around them, hated sharing the stage with them.
So she has earned her wings.
Here are some of the better-known Miss Hannigan battle-axes that show up on the website:
Jane Lynch--who better?
Ruth Kobart---won a Tony for playing David Burns' hen-pecking wife in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
Born for the role.
Sally Struthers---really wasn't one on TV, but I've heard stories.
Wanda Sykes---Boy, I would have loved to see that.
Nell Carter---I once sat at the next table from her at a restaurant in Atlantic City.
She had one of the hugest meals I'd ever seen sitting in front of her.
And she must have been pushing four hundred pounds at that point.
She downed every bite.
I was afraid that she was going to reach over and grab some of MY food.
I started guarding it very closely.
She was impressive, but I thought "At this pace, maybe she's got about six months left".
To quote Colonel Hall about Private Doberman, "he's got to be about three hundred calories away from exploding".
Nell Carter died about eight months later.
I guess you could say she beat the spread.
JoAnne Worley---right on the money.
Kathleen Freeman---one of my all-time favorites. I'll bet she was great.
I worked with her once, and have a great story to share with you about her.
But that's for another time.
So, to sum up, "Annie" is the Broadway Battle-Axe Champeen.
Next time, filmdom's all-time Battle-Axe movie.


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And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne and Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.



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