By Cary Ginell

The theater is meant to be an escape from reality, a place you can go to set aside the travails of contemporary society and travel to someplace exotic, whether a fantasy world or a different place or time.

The 1977 musical “Annie” takes the audience back to the Depression of the 1930s with a story based on characters from Harold Gray’s comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” which detailed the adventures of a plucky orphan and her billionaire benefactor, Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.

Thomas Meehan’s book and a tuneful score by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin made “Annie” a hit, running for nearly six years on Broadway.

High Street Arts Center’s current production, which opened Jan. 30, has all the charm and optimism imbued in its pint-sized heroine with striking red hair and dress to match, whose signature song, the cheery “Tomorrow,” teaches that no matter what problems there are, the sun will still rise tomorrow.

The night we saw the show was “understudy night,” with 12-year-old Ruby Jimenez filling in for regular Anna Marie Melendrez in the title role. Jimenez carries off the part well, with a solid singing voice and a cheery disposition that soon warms the heart of the no-nonsense Warbucks.

Darrin Ingram, who reportedly auditioned for the role only because his daughter Kaelia, a cast ensemble member asked him to, is perfect as Warbucks, and not just because it wasn’t necessary for him to shave his head for the part.

Warbucks would be considered a dinosaur in today’s political world: The idea of billionaires squiring underage girls around a big city, a concept that was innocent even in the 1970s has taken on an entirely different connotation in today’s Epstein-obsessed world.

“I tried to avoid making it look creepy,” Ingram joked after the show, but he manages to pull it off with an endearing performance as the lonely tycoon who wants Annie to become his daughter.

Toward the end of Act I, Ingram gets to sing the rarely heard character song “Why Should I Change a Thing,”which was written specifically for Australian actor Anthony Warlow during the show’s 2000 Australian tour. Since 2005, the song has become an optional part of the score, and it was a joy hearing Ingram sing it.

The always wonderful Francesca Barletta plays Miss Hannigan, the vile, kid-hating matron of the Hudson Street Orphanage, who wants to get rid of the spunky Annie, but resents the glamorous lifestyle Annie falls into after becoming Warbucks’ ward.

For Barletta, playing Hannigan is a bucket-list role, and she comes out scowling, with purple eye shadow and taking liberal swigs from a hip flask.

Barletta has a whale of a time on such scene-chewing songs as “Little Girls” and “Easy Street,” the latter performed with the terrific Darian Calderon as her ne’er-do-well brother Rooster.

Melia Bacon, the understudy for Becca Peyton, does a marvelous job as Warbucks’ warm-hearted secretary Grace Farrell, who breezes through her showpiece, “I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here.”

All the musical numbers are beautifully staged, skillfully choreographed by Paige Pensivy and Melina Ortega, but the best ones are those performed by the orphans (“Hard Knock Life” and “Fully Dressed”) and “N.Y.C.,” a musical love letter to the Big Apple, which glamorizes Manhattan as few songs have. (Ingram manages to make “5th Avenue bus fumes” sound delightfully nostalgic.)

Joey Langford stands out in his brief portrayal of radio host Bert Healy, one of many excellent performances by actors in secondary roles, which includes Elana Richardson as Rooster Hannigan’s gold-digging “goyl-friend” Lily St. Regis.

Aside from not being able to find a 1930s wheelchair for FDR (a bellowing Dan Burchfield) or a ventriloquist’s dummy, the prop department does a good job coming up with suitable solutions.

Rebecca Curci, who once played Annie when she was 10, comes full circle in directing this satisfying and uplifting production.

“Annie” plays through March 1 at the High Street Arts Center in Moorpark.

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Curci