2009 Season Preview

\Of Mice and Men
Set in the Salinas Valley of central California during the Great Depression, John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, tells the story of two men, George and Lennie. During this time period, it was not unusual for men to travel from job to job as a result of the economic recession. However, it was unusual for two men to travel together.

Lennie is a large, strong man with the intellectual capabilities of a small child. He is often forgetful, but is capable of doing intense physical labor. Lennie was raised by his Aunt Clara, who looked after Lennie until her death. At that point, George, a childhood friend, takes responsibility for Lennie.

George and Lennie travel and work together for years before the novella begins. Their last job was in a town called Weed. One day, Lennie sees a girl wearing a red dress and decides to touch it. Lennie likes to pet soft things and has a history of killing the small animals he touches. The girl screams and Lennie freezes, holding her dress tighter. Eventually, George gets Lennie to let go of the dress. Lennie does not physically hurt the girl, but she tells the sheriff she has been raped. George and Lennie flee town.

Besides sharing a history, George and Lennie also share a dream of owning property and living off the fat of the land. While on the ranch, they share this dream with Candy, a swamper with only one hand and an old dog. After the mercy killing of his dog, Candy realizes that, like his dog, his usefulness on the ranch is nearing an end. He has some money and asks if he can join the two men to fulfil their dream.

However, life on the ranch is not easy. The boss’s son, Curley, takes an instant dislike to Lennie because of his size. Curley is a small man who likes to prove his worth by beating up large men, usually men who work for his father and cannot defend themselves out of fear of losing their jobs. Curley is unhappily married to a woman with a reputation for flirting with the ranch hands. After searching for his wife again, an angry Curley starts hitting Lennie, who does not fight back until George gives permission. Lennie then grabs Curley’s hand and crushes it, causing Curley to be rushed to the hospital.

Slim gives Lennie a puppy from his bitch's litter. However, Lennie kills the puppy, not realizing his own strength. He is in the barn burying the puppy when Curley’s wife approaches. She is lonely and desperate for attention. She allows Lennie to pet her hair, but screams at Lennie to stop when he begins to handle her too roughly. Lennie panics, shakes the woman, and snaps her neck.

Lennie flees the ranch and hides in the brush by the river bank as George instructs him in the beginning of the novella. Chaos ensues at the ranch when the body is found. Curley wants to lynch Lennie and make him suffer. George knows Lennie will suffer, no matter who finds him, and must make an agonizing decision. What would be best and most merciful for Lennie?

Major themes in the novella are loneliness as well as companionship, alienation, mercy, compassion, and the importance of dreams. The novel can also be read through a historical lens as a study of migratory workers during the Great Depression. This book, despite being written in 1937, remains controversial today because of the issue of euthanasia.

ANNIE

Based on the comic strip of the same name, the musical ANNIE tells the story of an 11-year-old orphan looking for her parents in New York City during the Great Depression. With only the locket left around her neck when she was abandoned as a baby, Annie runs away from the orphanage that has served as her home and from the mean-spirited, bitter spinster Miss Agatha Hannigan who runs the orphanage.

With a scruffy stray dog she calls Sandy by her side, Annie ventures through New York, confident of herself, but she's soon arrested and returned to the orphanage where she meets Miss Grace Farrell, secretary to the billionaire industrialist, Mr. Oliver Warbucks. Warbucks has sent Grace to find an orphan to spend the Christmas at his home, and Grace decides that Annie will be that lucky orphan, much to Miss Hannigan's fury.

When Warbucks first arrives home, he is angry that Grace has chosen a little girl and orders her sent back to the orphanage, but Annie manages to quickly win the admiration of all the servants and soon finds a spot in Warbucks' heart as well. Before long, Warbucks decides that he would like to adopt Annie, and he approaches her with his plans. Annie tells Warbucks that she is desperate to find her parents and cannot be his little girl, so Warbucks recruits the help of the FBI and the President in a nation-wide search for Annie's mother and father. A huge reward is offered to the couple who can prove they are Annie's parents.

Hearing of the reward, Miss Hannigan recruits the assistance of her brother Rooster and his girlfriend Lily to take Annie's locket to Warbucks and pose as the Mudges, Annie's parents. Disappointed that Annie cannot be his little girl, Warbucks holds to his promise and prepares to hand over the reward money and say goodbye to Annie when the FBI show up on Christmas morning with the unhappy news that Annie's parents died some years ago. Miss Hannigan and "The Mudges" are arrested, and Christmas continues at Warbucks' mansion. Surrounded by all her orphan friends, Annie is reunited with Sandy and welcomed into her new family. Annie, Warbucks, Grace and all agree that this Christmas is the beginning of a wonderful new life for all.

Sweeny Todd

The rare instance of a musical thriller, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece of murderous barber-ism and culinary crime tells the infamous tale of the unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th century London seeking revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. His thirst for blood soon expands to include his unfortunate customers, and the resourceful proprietress of the pie shop downstairs soon has the people of London lining up in droves with her mysterious new meat pie recipe!