The Martin Charnin/Thomas Meehan musical Annie premiered on Broadway in 1977, featuring then 12-year-old actress Andrea McArdle in the title role. In late 2024, Dexter’s Encore Musical Theatre Company produced Annie, with Ellen Gruber, a 10-year-old fourth-grade student at Eberwhite Elementary School in Ann Arbor, in the lead role.
In June 2025, The Croswell Opera House in Adrian, staged Annie, with 11-year-old Caroline “Cici” Hubbard, a sixth-grade student at Chelsea’s Beach Middle School, playing the feisty lead actress.
Two Washtenaw County girls were cast as Annie, widely regarded as the premier role for a young actress. While bringing different talents and characteristics to the role, both Ellen and Cici shined in the spotlight. The Sun Times News sat down with both girls to learn what it was like for them to take on Annie, the title role in the smash musical production.
At Encore, Annie ran for thirty performances, with Gruber playing the role in 26 of 30 performances. Gruber’s understudy, Emerson Davis, portrayed the role in four performances. “That means I sang Tomorrow a total of 78 times”, Gruber said. Cici performed in all ten of the performances at The Croswell, including five performances in three days during the first week of the show…