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Bakersfield's Broadway series continues with 'Annie'
11-year-old actress shares show secrets before Thursday performance
| Monday, May 5 2008 2:18 PM
Last Updated: Monday, May 5 2008 2:10 PM
Amanda Balon is one little girl who doesn’t get tired of singing “The sun will come out tomorrow.”
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What: “Annie” the musical, part of the Broadway in Bakersfield series
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Theater at Rabobank Convention Center, 1001 Truxtun Ave.
Tickets:$30, $40 and $50, available at the box office or Ticketmaster at 322-2525, www.ticketmaster.com or retail locations around town.
Details: 852-7300 or rabobankarena.com.
Photos:
Mikey the dog as Sandy and Amanda Balon as Annie in the national tour of "Annie," are coming to the theater at Rabobank Convention Center Thursday.
David Barton and Amanda Balon star in the national tour of "Annie."
Amanda Balon as Annie and Annalisa DiBernardo perform in the national tour of "Annie."
The 11-year-old Orlando, Fla. native snagged the ultimate girls role, Little Orphan Annie. Part of the Broadway in Bakersfield series, “Annie” the musical comes to the theater at Rabobank Convention Center Thursday.
Balon has been acting since she was a toddler. Her first audition at the age of 3? Annie.
“I was a little young, so of course, I didn’t get the part, but I’ve always been acting,” she says by phone from a stop in Colorado on the national tour.
She loves her character, based on Harold Gray’s 1920s comic strip heroine who finds a home with an initially stone-hearted Daddy Warbucks.
“She’s very hopeful and that’s a good thing,” she says. “She doesn’t really care about the money. She cares about the people and she is very tough on the outside, but very sweet on the inside.”
Balon adores the dog that plays Sandy, Annie’s pooch. They’re best pals.
“He’s an all-American mutt,” she explains. “When they made the comic strip, you couldn’t recognize what dog it was, so they take that and put that into the play.”
Balon will belt out the classics: “It's The Hard Knock Life,” “You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile,” and, of course, “Tomorrow.”
Here’s more of our interview with the young star:
Do you travel with the dog that plays Annie’s pet, Sandy?
His name is Mikey. He’s a rescue dog and there’s also an understudy named Lola. Oh, yeah, me and him are really good friends. We bond a lot. We have sleepovers. I go over to him a lot and we just hang out, both of us, before every show. I trained him because this is his first year of the tour. I threw bologna (to help train him).
We do “Tomorrow” a lot and we would do all the dog commands and we would run through and keep running him through different songs.
What do you like to do when you’re not acting?
I like to read. I like to hang out with my friends. I like to swim. Of course, I ride my bike and I take home movies, stuff like that.
Do you want to be an actress when you grow up?
I want to be an actress. I kinda want to play Elphaba in “Wicked” or Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde.”
Why? Because first of all, they’re main and they have a lot of personality to both of them even though they’re completely different, in two different plays. With Elle Woods, you get to train a dog again. I’d love to do that again. And with both of them, they can both be on tour again and I enjoy being on tour. I think it gives you another really great wonderful role to play.