Vagabond by Tim Curry

Author:Tim Curry [Curry, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2025-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“I’ll Kill Ya, Ya Little Brat. I’LL KILL YA!”

(Annie)

But I still had a movie to make. While living in New York, I’d go for the odd meeting with Ray Stark, a marvelous independent film producer. We’d often meet at the ever-bustling restaurant Sardi’s, where he always ordered cinnamon toast and black coffee. I enjoyed him. At one of those meetings, when I was still performing in Amadeus, he brought up and then offered me the role of the wily Rooster Hannigan in the musical film version of Annie.

Annie originally opened on Broadway in 1977 and had received great acclaim in the years since. The musical follows the adventures of a young girl named Annie, who lives in a run-down orphanage and is later adopted by a wealthy businessman. The character I played, Rooster, is essentially a cartoon villain; he’s the brother of the cruel orphanage matron, Miss Hannigan, and spends a lot of time scheming how to kidnap Annie. Not a tremendous amount of nuance to the role. He’s a very cheap gangster and a rather unsuccessful one. He fancies himself a George Raft type… but he really isn’t anywhere near as smooth as that. Instead, Rooster’s greed and neediness are accompanied by a vicious mean streak, which is revealed by the end when he tries to kill little Annie. But he does eventually get his comeuppance after being bashed over the head by his sister, who was played by the hysterically funny, irreverent, spectacular Carol Burnett (whom I cherish).

I had great fun on the set of Annie, from start to finish. We started filming right around when my final album, Simplicity, came out in 1981, and it was the perfect palate cleanser, in that it was so completely different but was, in its way, another realization of a long-held dream. When I was a child, Hollywood musicals were the only kinds of movies that my parents found suitable. For the most part, they were pretty wholesome. I particularly loved Lili, with Leslie Caron (“Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo”), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Daddy Long Legs, South Pacific, all of those types. I saw most several times. Guys and Dolls was another great one, distinguished because it spends a bit more time steeped in the gritty underworld of New York in the 1920s and 1930s.

Then there was West Side Story, which was in its own category, both because of the nature of the music and its sexual dynamic. Obviously, it was my favorite. I saw it in the theater in London with George Chakiris playing Riff (odd choice, though he was marvelous) and Chita Rivera playing Anita (always the best choice). Seeing it on the screen, but especially seeing it live, was deeply transformative for me. I was about fifteen when I first saw it onstage, and it made me want to be a musical actor. I even stood in the rain afterward, not minding in the slightest, to get George and Chita’s autographs. I immediately bought the score and learned to sing all the parts—male or female—of every tune.

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