“The Shit’ll turn up, tomorrow” The radical queer revolution of Mannie

*note: this article is a parody promotion for the “mannie” production and do not reflect sincere theater critique from kayden j. merritt

Mannie and Judith butler, they were probably friends

Total Anarchic Queerness is the name of the game in Seth McIntyre’s genius interpolation of the musical theater classic, Annie. Out comes Mannie, pulling at the glistening red curls of the little orphan that could, tearing up the stage with her/his/their profanity, violence, and songful baritone resonance. In many ways one could consider Mannie to be a roughly rehearsed, slapdash effort of a musical put together by a handful of twenty somethings in search of a few cheap laughs.

Or.

One could consider Mannie as an essential piece of Queer revolutionary art that pushes the boundaries of the musical theater genre.

“We never had a little ?!&@#”

Annie is much like a figure from the bible in the canon of American Musical Theater. However, Annie’s journey over the course of the music represents a problematic assimilation and erasure of a Queer identity into binary gender ideology and capitalist ideas of the American Colonial State.

When the play begins Annie is a rough and tumble “Tom-Boy”, the writers probably couldn’t explicitly state it at the time, but Annie could be now considered one of the first Non-Binary character in American Children’s Media. In their time at the orphanage, they are terrorized by Ms. Hannigan, who represents the repressed trans individual, repeatedly reminded by their gender through their role as Mother to the orphans & Annie. In fact, Hannigan’s gender is institutionally formalized & structured by the State, as Ms. Hannigans income relies on her performance of gender roles to take care of her orphans.

Grace enters as the representation of pure womanhood in hetrosexual cisgender society, a personal secretary. During Annie’s time with Warbucks, she is taught the role of a high status daughter of the American Colonial Project, to toe the line and dispell the “radical” life she knew before. There is no place for radical gender ideology in the American upper class.

By the end of Annie, Ms. Hannigan’s Crew’s Queerness has been criminalized, as Warbucks family grows to indoctrinate the entire ophanage. There will be a new deal for Christmas, but Chanukah & Kwanza have been canceled in White Hetrosexual Cisgender Patriarchal Colonial America

“Amen for mammmmmmdaaaaaaannnnniiiiiiiii”

Seth McIntyre and Company flip the script. Instead of the 11 year old Sadie Sink, the role of Mannie is a grown adult with a beard and everything. Mannie is a man? Mannie is a girl? Mannie is a they? Mannie is Mannie. That is implicitly understood. Mannie calls out the b*llsh*t of Duffy & Pepper when they start bully molly. In fact, Mannie stands up to bullies so well that they fall out of the orphanage window!

Ms. Hannigan has become Mx. Hannigan, fully embracing their queerness and their sexuality. No longer defined the state, they hate the little girls because of the psychological & physical torture they enact on Mx. Hannigan.

Grace is no longer the representative of pure straight womanhood, now being played by someone named Bertrand Maddox Williams and giving passionate head to members of Warbucks’s staff, Drake & Cecille.

By the end of the piece, rather than Warbucks inciting conformity amongst the orphans of girls annex, Mannie invites the entire company into the radical queer revolution.

I won’t spoil too much. You’ll have to come and see for yourself.

Get ready for the radical revolution of Mannie, in the Coffeehouse Theater January 30th & 31st!