'Annie: The Musical' Arrives In Peabody After Marathon Journey

PEABODY, MA — The sun will come out at Peabody's Black Box Theather on Friday nearly two years after the opening night of the show was first planned and cast.

Rehearsals for the upcoming run of "Annie: The Musical" began before the start of the coronavirus health crisis. When theaters across the country closed in March 2020, Neverland Theatre founder and producer/director Andy Diskes shifted rehearsals to Zoom for over a year until the cast and crew could finally get back together in August 2021.

While the show run at the Black Box was rescheduled four times, 75 percent of the original 35-member cast will be there when the show opens this week.

"Excitement is building as after almost two years and orphans that are almost as tall as some adult cast members the show will go on," the theater said.

Kira Madruga, of Swampscott, stars as Annie. Her real-life father, Joshua Madruga, performs as Daddy Warbucks and her sister, Chloe, appears in the production.

Tickets for the run that goes through Nov. 21 can be purchased here.

General admission is $20 with $16 discount tickets available for the shows on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)