Harry Connick, Jr. will play Daddy Warbucks in NBC’s Annie Live!
Actor and musician Harry Connick, Jr. has been cast to play Daddy Warbucks in NBC’s upcoming live musical event, Annie Live!, based on the Tony-winning Broadway show. While a nationwide casting search still underway for the girl who will play Annie, Empire star Taraji P. Henson has already been cast as Miss Hannigan.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to play Daddy Warbucks in Annie Live! and working alongside Taraji P. Henson is a dream come true,” Connick said in a statement. “I love this show, and its musical message of love and hope couldn’t come at a better time.”
The show will be executive produced by Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Alex Rudzinsky. Lear deBessonet and Alex Rudzinski will be co-directing the show. The choreography will be done by Segio Trujillo while Paul Tazewell will design costumes. Jason Sherwood will oversee production design, while Stephen Oremus will arrange the music direction. The live event is being produced by Chloe Productions.
Connick said that being asked to play such a big role in such an iconic musical felt unreal to him.
“It’s such a classic show and it’s a show that I’m so familiar with, just from seeing it a million times,” he told PEOPLE Magazine. “And it’s one of those things where you watch it and enjoy and never really imagine yourself a part of it, so when I was asked to play Daddy Warbucks, it was kind of surreal because that’s such an iconic role.”
This isn’t Connick’s first time working on a Broadway musical. He has been nominated for two Tony Awards, the first for Best Original Score (Music and Lyrics) for 2002’s Thou Shalt Not and the second for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for 2006’s The Pajama Game .
Annie Live will be the sixth show NBC has aired since bringing back the trend of live musicals in 2013 with Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music Live! Other productions have included live versions of Peter Pan, The Wiz, Hairspray, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
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NBC’s holiday production of Annie Live! will air Thursday, December 2 on NBC.