Song:Tomorrow
Album:Annie: A New Musical
Andrea McArdle was 13 years old when she starred in the Broadway musical Annie. You might ask whatever happened to her? I'm gonna tell you. Andrea was born Nov. 5, 1963 in Philadelphia. As a child, she appeared in TV commercials and was on the daytime soap Search For Tomorrow for two years. Of course Annie is based on the popular comic strip Little Orphan Annie. In 1972, lyricist Martin Charnin approached Thomas Meehan about turning it into a musical. Meehan wrote the story and Charles Strouse wrote the songs with Charnin. Kristen Vigard was originally cast as Annie. But in the pre-Broadway tryouts, the producers thought Kristen wasn't gritty enough and Andrea replaced her. Andrea was originally hired to play one of the orphans. Kristen was her understudy. Kristen went on to star in a couple of daytime soaps and she has been in music since 1988. This turned out to be a great decision as Annie was a huge hit and it won Tonys. Sony's 2009 CD release of the original cast album includes bonus tracks. It also made Andrea famous for a couple of years After the show ended, Andrea starred as Judy Garland in the 1981 NBC TV movie Rainbow. After that, she returned to the stage sometimes on Broadway in shows like Les Miserables, State Fair and Beauty and the Beast. She also appears in plenty of touring companies. Andrea also performs in clubs and has released the occasional CD produced by her ex-husband Edd Kalehoff. His claim to fame is he wrote the theme for The Price Is Right. There's a cash cow. Andrea has been on tour this year. It's likely she will return to the stage in the future. But she will always be famous for playing Annie. Here's Andrea McArdle performing Tomorrow 1977.
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