Variety KC Presents the 2025 Variety Show: Annie
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Friday, August 1, 7:30p
Saturday, August 2, 2:30p
Saturday, August 2, 7:30p
Sunday, August 3, 2:30p
Variety KC presents the REIMAGINED Variety Show, an all-inclusive professional stage production featuring professional actors of all abilities.
When you attend this amazing production, you will be taken away on a magical journey across the stage.
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About Variety Show
For children with disabilities, participation in the theater serves as an invaluable tool, helping them grasp concepts and develop skills in a way that honors their unique learning needs. Inclusive theater not only provides therapeutic benefits but also fosters confidence, nurtures friendships, and creates a space where joy and creativity flourish.
This event exemplifies Variety KC’s commitment to inclusion by showcasing the talents of individuals with diverse abilities and promoting a sense of belonging within the community. Variety KC also hopes to provide opportunities for children who dream of performing on stage by allowing them to see themselves represented by another actor who looks like them. Variety KC aims to inspire these children and show them that their dream can come true.
In addition to the professional cast, Variety KC hopes to include a minimum of 20 children with a wide variety of disabilities, both cognitive and physical, in the stage production of Annie. These children will appear on stage as part of the actual musical production. Furthermore, an additional 20 children with various disabilities will have an opportunity to participate off-stage in roles such as lighting, set design, stagehands, costuming, and front-of-house operations.
Variety KC will provide apprenticeships covering various aspects of theater production, ensuring that children of all abilities have a place in the show. In total, this production aims to serve a minimum of 40 children with diverse disabilities, offering them a unique and enriching theatrical experience.
Creative Team
Marc Harrell – Executive Producer
Andrew Grayman-Parkhurst – Producer
Michael Grayman-Parkhurst – Director
Jeremy Jacobs – Musical Director
Brad Kanouse – Technical Director
Christina Burton – Choreographer
Ken Burrell – Costume Supervisor
Paul Vedros – Sound Designer
Rachael Honnold – Lighting Designer
Variety KC is pleased to welcome the original film Annie to the cast
Aileen was introduced to show business by her mother, Helenann, who was doing theatre when Aileen was growing up. Aileen begged to audition too, and she began to get parts near her home of Yardley, Pennsylvania. Her first show being, ironically “Annie Get Your Gun.”
Aileen’s first movie part was one line in Paternity (1981), starring Burt Reynolds. At the time Aileen was picked for the movie, she was in the Broadway show, “Annie” as the “swing orphan.” The Swing essentially understudied various Orphan roles in the show and knew all their parts and had to go on stage at a moment’s notice if one of the actors was sick and couldn’t perform, averaging 2 or 3 times a week.
A year later, she was chosen to be Annie in the film version from over 8,000 girls throughout the world. The announcement was made in January 1981 by director John Huston, who introduced Aileen as his Annie to the world on nationwide TV. Annie (1982) was filmed from April to September 1981. Aileen was under contract for 6 years to make “Annie 2,” and possibly “Annie 3,” but those projects never materialized. When the contract expired, Aileen was then approached to star in a new film version of –The Frog Prince (1986) – which they aired on The Disney Channel often. While Aileen was under contract, she continued to perform and went back to her theatre roots. She starred in a variety of productions in Fort Bragg, North Carolina including Dorothy in ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, Kim in “Bye Bye Birdie,” Jenny in “Shenandoah,” and Annie in “Annie,” opposite Harve Presnell as Daddy Warbucks. She also starred in “A Day In Hollywood, A Night In The Ukraine” in Bristol, Pennsylvania as Harpo Marx.
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Aileen decided to take a break from show business and attended Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. She received a B.A. with honors in Spanish and minored in Political Science. She spent 6 months living with a family in Chile as part of an exchange program at La Universidad Católica with all of her classes in Spanish. She considers it one of her life’s most rewarding experiences.
After graduation from Drew, Aileen once again took to the stage playing Bette in “Oliver!” at the famous Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. She then begin a 5 year stint doing Broadway National Tours including “Fiddler On The Roof,” “Peter Pan,” and “Saturday Night Fever.” In between touring, Aileen starred in two off-Broadway shows, “Dreamstuff,” and “Yiddle With a Fiddle.”
Starting in 2007, Aileen returned to film getting roles in various projects, including independent and studio backed. So, she decided to leave her East Coast roots, and moved to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2011, where she resides, but keeps a home in New York. The following year she formed a Rockabilly, Swing, Blues Band appropriately named “Aileen Quinn and the Leapin’ Lizards.” The band released their debut album in 2015, “Spin Me,” which includes 10 tracks of all original material. Aileen has gone back into the recording studio as she did when she was 9 years old, recording the double platinum “Annie” soundtrack as well as her solo album, “Bobby’s Girl,” and is enjoying it as much now, as she did then. Her current band performs all over California in hopes to tour throughout the US and the world.
In addition to performing, Aileen teaches Master Classes all over the US in drama and musical theatre, and has directed and co-directed various children’s theatre productions.
Full cast coming soon…
A BIG THANKS TO
Variety Children’s Charity of Greater Kansas City (Variety KC) wants to be the most trusted and effective children’s charity in the world, delivering every child equality and a future without limits. Variety KC’s mission is to support children of ALL abilities to Be Active, Be Social, and BELONG.
Variety KC empowers children with disabilities in the Greater Kansas City region by providing access to vital medical equipment for mobility, sensory, communication, safety, therapies, and more. Variety KC requests funds to underwrite the direct costs of these services. Grants and donations we receive will increase the number of families we can serve, continuing our history of positive impact while helping us to expand our coverage offerings to more and more families. All monies raised for Variety KC stay in the Greater Kansas City area. Variety KC’s inclusive mission provides essential mobility equipment and opportunities for children with cognitive and physical disabilities.
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