Parkway Playhouse world premieres the original, full-scale musical, based on the sad tale of Tom Dula.

Despite the fact that Little Orphan Annie’s comic strip ended earlier this month with our heroine kidnapped by a Balkan war criminal and held hostage indefinitely in Guatemala, Annie is alive and well in Burnsville at the Parkway Playhouse.

Catch the last weekend of the world premiere musical documentary Esley: The Life and Musical Legacy of Leslie Riddle. Riddle was an African-American Burnsville native who traveled with A.P. Carter of the Carter Family, searching out traditional mountain music and digging the roots of country music.