First complaint is that in the comic strip upon which the musical is based, none of the characters had eyeballs, yet here, they all did. Why couldn't the producers come up with something for actors with eyeballs, instead of...
If you really think the point of the story has anything to do with Annie's hair or skin color, I feel very sorry for you.
I think the "over the top" interpretation. Of Miss Hannigan started with Carol Burnett. It's a little much for me, but that's just a matter of taste. (Hey, for me, one of the highlights was catching the stagehands skirt across the back of stage--different strokes for different folks.)
Different versions have accented different parts of the story; this is hardly my favorite. More fleshing out of the plot to kidnap Annie to get the money and Miss Hannigan's sudden act of conscience would bring more sense to the story.
All that said, it does project the optimism that's the point of the play. It's not that hard to sit back and enjoy (unless you rely on the captioning, which, done live, rather than from the script, was late, and often truncated).
