Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie

Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...

, with music by Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse

Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist.-Life and career:Strouse was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ira and Ethel Strouse...

, lyrics by Martin Charnin

Martin Charnin

Martin Charnin is an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director and lyricist of the hit musical Annie....

, and the book by Thomas Meehan

Thomas Meehan (writer)

Thomas Meehan is an American writer, best known for Annie, The Producers and Hairspray.-Life and career:Meehan grew up in Suffern, New York, and graduated from Hamilton College...

. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster seems to indicate, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre

Neil Simon Theatre

The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....

). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical.