PHOTO PROVIDED Steve Aguirre, as Oliver Warbuck; Hartlyn Kiess, as Annie, and Cameron Clements, as Grace, are pictured during dress rehearsal for Millbrook Playhouse’s production of “Annie, the Musical.”

Have I said how much I appreciate Millbrook Playhouse? Here in Central Pennsylvania we have a professional theatre company that continues, season after season, to attract incredible talent both from within and outside our local community, to engage theatre audiences with an impressive variety of mainstage and cabaret productions and to provide us — often with only limited resources — with the highest caliber entertainment this side of Broadway.

And speaking of which…Annie is now running as this season’s featured musical on the main stage, the latest example of Millbrook’s ability to make magic in our midst.

Everything about this show is sheer delight. The set, combining the talents of scenic designer Cade M. Sikora and lighting designer Victoria Bain, offsets the shoddy orphanage where much of the action takes place with a vivid backdrop featuring three of New York City’s iconic landmarks, each newly constructed at the time the play takes place: Christmas, 1933. The buildings soar to the heavens, each illuminated against New York City’s skyline to illustrate the possibilities — and privilege — of industrial power.

The set introduces us to the series of compelling contrasts that run through the entire production. At the center of the orphans’ world is Miss Aggie Hannigan, the villainous matron who takes out on the children (and especially on Annie) her frustration at having to live under such pinched circumstances. It’s a world, she sings, brimming not with pearls but with (needy) little girls! Ricky Kessler plays the part with flamboyance and uninhibited gusto, flouncing her entitlement along with her tattered thrift-shop silks, flaunting her indulgences while the children scrub the floors and belting out — at the top of her thrilling voice — her rage at all the implacable forces that landed her here. She’s terrific.

On the other side is her counterpart, the highly successful entrepreneur, billionaire magnate Oliver Warbucks who sits at the center of a well-heeled, well-oiled universe where he need only pick up the phone to turn his wishes into imperial, instantly respected commands. Annie is plucked by Oliver from the orphanage on a whim, and we are relieved, as she is, to enter a world where mush is not served for breakfast. Here she is treated to unimagined luxuries: her first movie and dinner at the automat (a treat I can attest to from my own childhood trips to the City). But all is not well here either. Oliver, played with sensitivity by Steve Aguirre (Tuesdays with Morrie, Mamma Mia), is feeling the effects of the personal ruthlessness it has taken to pull himself out of poverty. Steve’s performance is especially touching as he reveals the nervousness he’s feeling as he contemplates making Annie a significant part of his life. His beautiful tenor voice gives compelling substance to the play’s parallel world, while at the same time revealing the ironic circumstance in which a man who has everything is now forced to question a life where his bespoke suit has become a sort of straightjacket.

And then there’s Annie, caught between the horrors of the orphanage and the uncertainties of the penthouse. The night I attended the show, Cast B was performing, which meant that Amelya Sox was in the role. (On alternate nights Cast A will be on board, and Hartlyn Kiess will be playing Annie; see the press release in The Express for performance dates.) Annie’s belief in goodness goes beyond mere optimism to become a kind of life force, a force that finds its ultimate expression in her hearfelt insistence that, if we only hang on, the “sun will come out tomorrow.” She does hang on, and it appears that the world listens, for by the end of the play the heart has found its home. Amelya plays the part with the kind of confidence needed to carry Annie through all the trials that beset her. She’s not defined by the orphanage and she’s not intimidated by the penthouse. She carries herself with a kind of brash assertion; when things go well she expresses a genuine joy; and throughout the play she sings her heart out.

Also giving note-worthy performances are Cameron Clements as the quietly elegant Grace Farrell who offers Annie the feminine side of true parental love; Emir Garcia as Rooster Hannigan, and Rachel Kern (Rocky Horror) as Lily St. Regis who, decked out as Annie’s scheming “parents,” add a wonderfully comic touch (and I loved their exuberant rendering — along with Aggie — of “Easy Street”); and the versatile, sometimes endearingly goofy Adam Fox (Clue, Grease, Godspell) who assumes several roles in the play, including that of the hapless radio announcer Bert Healy.

Kudos also need to go out to two members of the Conklin family — Ericka Lee Conklin who directs this amazing production, and her father Richard L. Conklin who plays the part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt with dignity and a comforting good will.

The ensemble numbers, including those performed by the orphan cast, are gorgeously choreographed and wonderfully executed. And then there are the dogs! Ruby, owned by Lesley Todd, seems completely happy — as Fefe — to be on stage in someone’s arms. And Bomber, the 7-year-old chocolate lab owned by Reed and Jeni Mellinger, who plays the important role of Sandy, Annie’s companion, seems impervious to his new-found fame, glad to share the limelight with his new, two-legged friends.

So much needs to come together — and in a short time — to stage a production like this successfully. Congratulations to the tech staff and thanks to our local sponsors for making possible a show with so much heart. To paraphrase Annie, “You’re going to love it here.”

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Karen Elias lives in Swissdale. She taught English for more than 30 years, most recently at Lock Haven University and Penn College.