Lights up on the New York City Municipal Orphanage, Girls’ Annex where the girls are awakened yet again by Molly crying. A fight breaks out and Annie steps in to quieten things down, announcing that she’s running away. In the middle of her escape Miss Hannigan, the cruel and overbearing woman in charge of the orphanage  catches her and as a punishment directs all the girls to clean the floors even though it is 4am. 

The laundry man, Bundles, arrives to collect the laundry and Annie manages to escape in the laundry basket. She wanders the streets and finds a new friend in a stray dog, naming him Sandy, before being taken back to the orphanage by two policemen, while Sandy is left behind in the chaos.

Unexpectedly, the next morning, Miss Hannigan’s tirade against Annie is interrupted by the arrival of Grace Farrell who announces that Mr Warbucks, the Billionaire, would like to ‘adopt’ an orphan for the week of Christmas as a gesture of kindness. When Grace chooses Annie, Miss Hannigan is furious! 

When Grace arrives with Annie, she quickly finds her way into the hearts of everyone at Mr Warbucks’ mansion. Finding out that Annie has been searching for her parents, whom she believes are still alive and looking for her, Mr Warbucks offers a $50,000 reward on The Bert Healy radio show to anyone who can find Annie’s parents. 

Miss Hannigan’s shady brother, Rooster, and his dim witted girlfriend, Lily, hatch a plot with Miss Hannigan to pretend to be Annie’s parents so that they can split the reward money. As Annie is preparing to leave Mr Warbucks’ mansion and return to the orphanage after her stay at the mansion, the unexpected arrival of ‘Ralph and Shirley Mudge’ (Rooster & Lily in disguise) surprises everyone; following a discussion with President Roosevelt and the FBI who inform Mr Warbucks of their real identity, Mr Warbucks hands ‘Ralph and Shirley Mudge’ a check payable to ‘the jig is up’ and they are arrested.

All that remains is for Mr Warbucks to officially adopt Annie, marry Grace Farrell (although we don’t see that in our version!) and live happily ever after…with all the orphans and Sandy, who is found and delivered at the very last moment in the show.