The television personality will be playing Miss Hannigan in the New York City run of the beloved musical’s national tour
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Whoopi Goldberg on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on Nov. 6, 2024
Whoopi Goldberg is ready to hit the stage again!
The actress and television personality, 69, is making her anticipated return to theater as the infamous Miss Hannigan in the New York City run of the Annie national tour.
Goldberg’s run in the musical begins Dec. 11. The limited engagement will play from Dec. 4 through Jan. 5, 2024 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden before continuing with stops in Baltimore, Indianapolis, San Francisco and more.
Speaking with PEOPLE in an exclusive interview ahead of the show’s Big Apple opening, Goldberg jokes she feels out of practice despite having made her Broadway debut over 40 years ago in her namesake one-woman show.
“I’m rusty, trust me,” she says. “I won’t be as rusty when you see me, but the old bones are creaking as I move.”
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Whoopie Goldberg and Hazel Vogel in a photoshoot for ‘Annie’
Annie is one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Based on the 1924 comic Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, the story follows a young orphan as she meets billionaire Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks and begins a journey of finding her parents.
Adapted for the stage by book writer Thomas Meehan, with a score featuring music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin. Annie first opened on Broadway in 1977 in a production that ran for six years. It’s been revived twice on the boards, most recently in 2012 which saw Katie Finneran and Jane Lynch as Miss Hannigan.
The musical has also been adapted on film multiple times, beginning with a 1982 movie starring Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan along with Albert Finney, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters. A 1999 TV movie featured an all-star cast too, led by Kathy Bates’ Miss Hannigan. The movie also starred Victor Garber, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth.
In 2014, Annie returned to the screen with Quvenzhané Wallis in the lead role, marking the first time the character had been played by a Black actress on screen. Cameron Diaz played Miss Hannigan this time around, alongside Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale.
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Whoopi Goldberg t the Key to West Hollywood Ceremony on July 20, 2024 in California
This production is directed by Jenn Thompson, an original Broadway cast member.
Over the course of her career, Goldberg has stepped into several iconic stage roles, such as the title character in the 2003 Broadway revival of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Prologus and Pseudolus in the 1996 Broadway revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
But never has she played a villain. “I keep trying to get people to make me monsters [and] villains, and people are like ‘no,’ ” Goldberg tells PEOPLE. “So these folks said, ‘Well, we’re not gonna listen to anybody else and we’re gonna offer you this part.’ ”
Now, Goldberg says she is having “lots of fun” playing Miss Hannigan and interacting with the “fantastic” little girls who make up the orphanage.
“They’re all wonderful actors,” she says of her young costars. “They have been so open and so wonderful to me, and it makes it a pleasure to go to the rehearsals.”
Poster for the national tour of ‘Annie’
Moreover, the EGOT winner — who won the Tony Award in 2002 for her work as a producer on Thoroughly Modern Millie — says that she feels inspired by the support of her large cast.
“The thing that I can say about this, which I love more than anything, is the group feel,” Goldberg shares. “The groove of all of us working together is something I missed, where you’re all working to get it together and actors are helping other actors.”
As for bringing the show to N.Y.C. during the holidays, the experience is special for The View co-host, who has fond memories of spending her holidays growing up in Manhattan.
“We had all of New York to go and walk around,” recalls Goldberg. “It was Gimbels [department store] and Macy’s, the windows and the Santas. And that’s what Annie is. It is a whole tribute, really, to New York. It is what New York is and that is what I grew up with.”
“A lot of those places are kind of gone. Macy’s is there, but Gimbels is gone. So it is the feel of New York during the holidays I had as a kid,” adds Goldberg. “And when they said, ‘We’re gonna do this during the holidays,’ I thought, ‘Well, OK. I haven’t planned anything. Let’s do that! That perfect!’ ”
BOND Theatrical
National tour of ‘Annie’ on the first full day of rehearsal
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Alongside Goldberg, Annie stars Hazel Vogel in the title role, Christopher Swan as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, Julia Nicole Hunter as Grace and Mark Woodard as Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Also in the tour are Rhett Guter, Isabella De Souza Moore, Aria Valentina Aldea, Eva Lizette Carreon, Anna Dillon, Kylie Noelle Patterson, Olive Ross-Kline, Nora West, Stephen Cerf, Anthony DaSilva, Savannah Fisher, Alloria Frayser, Brooke Olivia Gatto, Caroline Glazier, Ryan Mulvaney, Joel Newsome, Melinda Parrett, Lawrence E. Street, Drew Tanabe and Stephanie Wahl.
Labradoodle Kevin will play Annie’s dog Sandy, Stefanie Londino will play Miss Hannigan in tour stops outside of the N.Y.C engagement and Avril Kagan is a swing for N.Y.C. performances only.
Tickets for Annie are now on sale.
