On Broadway and on tour, audiences have been seeing Nell Carter strut her stuff in Annie. Come Jan. 5, Sally Struthers will take over the Miss Hannigan role when the tour reaches Charlotte, NC.

Broadway's Annie closed at the Martin Beck Theatre Oct. 19. The evergreen show about the plucky orphan and her dog, Sandy then embarked on a tour in October, starting in Rhode Island and running through (at least) August 1998 in Green Bay, WI. Carter, has been repeating her role for the first three months of the tour.

Brittny Kissinger and Conrad John Schuck, as Annie and Daddy Warbucks, continue their roles indefinitely. As a special promotion for the show's Columbus, OH engagement (the last to feature Carter), ten local young women have been chosen as finalists to appear in a walk-on role as an orphan. Each finalist replied to an essay contest that asked, "If you could do one good deed for Annie and her orphan friends, what would it be and why?" The winner will be chosen Dec. 20 for a public reading. The use of a contest to pick a girl to play an orphan has ironic overtones, since we all remember what happened after the first Annie contest at MACYs. (Joanna Pacitti was selected to play the lead, only to be dismissed in mid run and replaced by Kissinger. She's still suing MACYs for reneging on the terms of its contest contract.)

Here are the scheduled stops (as of Dec. 15). Each stop plays about a week following these dates:

Jan. 5, 1998: Charlotte, NC, Blumenthal Arts Center (Sally Struthers begins)
Jan. 12, 1998: Tampa, FL Tampa Bay PAC
Jan. 19, 1998: Miami Beach, FL, Jackie Gleason
Jan. 26, 1998: Pensacola, FL, Robinson
Jan. 29, 1998: Jacksonville, FL, Times Union
Feb. 2, 1998: New Orleans, LA, Saenger Theatre
Feb. 9, 1998: Detroit, MI, Masonic Temple Theatre
Feb. 23, 1998: E. Lansing, MI, Wharton Center
March 2, 1998: Omaha, NE, Music Hall
March 9 & 16 1998: Denver, CO, Buell
March 23, 1998: San Diego, CA, Civic Theatre
March 30, 1998: Salt Lake City, Capitol Theatre
April 6, 1998: Vancouver, Canada, Queen Elizabeth
April 13, 1998: Las Vegas, NV, Aladdin Theatre
April 20, 1998: Long Beach, CA, Terrace Theatre
April 27, 1998: Costa Mesa, CA, Orange County PAC
May 4, 1998: Dallas, TX, Music Hall
May 11, 1998: St. Louis, MO, Fox Theatre
May 18, 1998: - Lay Off -
May 25, 1998: Grand Rapids, MI, DeVos Hall
June 1, 1998: Memphis, TN, Orpheum Theatre
June 8, 1998: Newark, NJ, NJ Performing Arts Centre
June 15, 1998: Ottawa, Canada, National Arts Centre
June 22, 1998: Green Bay, WI, Weidner Auditorium
The production has also launched its own website at http://www.annie20th.com.

Annie opened March 26, 1997 at the Martin Beck Theatre with Carter, Kissinger, and Schuck. The original production starred Dorothy Loudon and such Annies as Andrea McArdle, Sarah Jessica Parker and Shelley Bruce.

-- By Robert Viagas and David Lefkowitz