For the last half century, countless acting casts have performed their own renditions of the original Broadway musical Annie, each time retelling the story of the optimistic orphan singing through the Great Depression. The production, which shows at the First Interstate Center for the Arts in Spokane this weekend, is filled with hope for a better tomorrow, something that remains especially relevant today.
In each show Annie is joined by her four-legged friend Sandy, the scraggly stray dog who follows her around. He finds Annie when she runs away from the orphanage, one of her lowest points in the show, and chooses her to be his person.
This heartwarming relationship between the pair is perhaps one of the strongest manifestations of hope in the first act, proving you can find family and friends anywhere if you’re open to them. It’s also a relationship that audiences have come to deeply enjoy.
“Sandy is always a fan favorite. As soon as he hits the stage with Annie, he gets the biggest reaction from the audience,” says Charlotte Woertler, the show’s dog trainer. “He’s definitely a star up there.”
FROM STRAY TO STAGE
In honor of Sandy’s origins, it’s tradition that each dog “hired” to play the role in the North American touring production of Annie is rescued from a shelter.
Kevin, a 7-year-old tan labradoodle, began performing as Sandy last season. At this point in his career, Woertler says he’s a consummate professional who craves the limelight.
“He really looks forward to going on to the stage like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve done this before. I’m going to get to go out there and hang out with my best friend Annie, and the crowd’s gonna clap,'” she says, laughing about Kevin’s love for fame. “Anywhere we are now, if people start clapping, Kevin just lights up because he thinks it’s for him.”
His understudy, a 3-year-old mixed-breed rescue named Cooper, joined the show this year and is still training with Woertler before he’s ready for his debut. It may seem like a daunting task to turn a rescue dog into a canine celebrity, but she believes as long as they have the best disposition for the role they can be taught.
“I am a firm believer that every animal is trainable, but not every animal is necessarily the right fit for the job. We want to make sure that we’re selecting animals that are going to thrive in the environments that we’re working in and we want them to love it.”
“I am a firm believer that every animal is trainable, but not every animal is necessarily the right fit for the job,” she explains. “We want to make sure that we’re selecting animals that are going to thrive in the environments that we’re working in, and we want them to love it.”
Once she’s sure an animal feels comfortable in the stage environment, Woertler starts the training process from the beginning, like any new dog owner.
“The art of communication, which is a big part of training, is going to vary depending on what project you’re working on, but we’re always going to start with our sort of textbook basic behaviors, you know, your ‘sit’ and ‘lie down’ commands,” she says. “On the stage, just like actors have to learn how to hit a mark, so do our animal stars. That’s one of the first things we teach them.”
Unlike most pet parents, Woertler is also tasked with ensuring her dogs can do these tasks under stressful circumstances.
“If we’re going to be working on a set, there might be a lot of big moving pieces and lights or microphones overhead,” she says. “Acclimating them to all those kinds of things and really building the dog’s confidence in new environments is the key.”
‘THE MOST AMAZING JOB’
Woertler knew from an early age that she wanted to work with animals as her profession. As a child living in sunny Southern California, she grew up going to live animal shows at the zoos and theme parks abundant in the region.
At these shows she was transfixed, not just with the captivating creatures, but the trainers standing beside them. So one day after an animal show at Universal Studios Hollywood, she gathered the courage to approach the trainer to ask how he got his job.
Matthew Murphy photo
Julia Nicole Hunter as Grace Farrell, Christopher Swan as Oliver Warbucks and
Hazel Vogel as Annie, plus the adorable Kevin as Sandy.
In response, he handed her a brochure for an animal training program at Moorpark College outside Los Angeles.
“I just remember thinking, ‘That’s the most amazing job in the world, I want to do that,'” Woertler says. “Twelve years later, I got into that school, got a degree in animal training and started volunteering at that same show.”
After that Woertler spent two decades training animals for those same live shows she attended and a handful of movies, including Disney’s Treasure Buddies and the 2023 Netflix original Dog Gone.
In 2024 she joined the crew of the North American tour of Annie, marking her first time training an animal for a live musical. Sure, she’s orchestrated live shows to cheering audiences at theme parks, but the job feels different when she’s prepping her pups for auditoriums across the country.
“One of the biggest things we have with live theater is that there is no take two, everything is happening live in that moment,” she explains. “No two shows are the same.”
As one could imagine, the prospect of training a dog to make it to its place on stage as Annie belts “Tomorrow” at the right time for each and every show can be nerve-racking. However, for Woertler the reward of a good paw-formance far outweighs the risk of any missteps.
“I know a lot of people think individuals get into the animal field because they don’t like working with people, but I love connecting with people,” Woertler says. “So getting to see people have an emotional reaction and really enjoy the performance is very rewarding.” ♦
Annie • Feb. 28-March 2; Fri-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sat at 2 pm, Sun at 1 pm • $50-$90 • First Interstate Center for the Arts • 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. • broadwayspokane.com
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