Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticNBC’s holiday-season live-musical franchise is so proudly square that it’s surprising it took this long for them to get to “Annie.”The recent tradition, launched by the producers Neil Meron and the late Craig Zadan, of ceding a night of network primetime to a scrappy, let’s-put-on-a-show broadcast seems to have found its perfect match in “Annie.” The family-oriented musical has never had the remotest claim on coolness.
And, coming as it did in a flickering moment in which a production of this sort felt possible but still novel, “Annie Live!,” starring Celina Smith as its optimistic orphan, made its goofy eagerness to be liked, and its occasional raggedness, into assets.The show’s staging allowed songcraft.
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