Who owns the copyright? Play idea

[Doug Fowler]

I had an idea for a play set in the universe of the Annie musical and I was wondering if anyone knew how to get copyright permission to use the universe situation even if not characters. Because except for one orphan - and I suppose that could even be changed - they would only be mentioned and not be on screen, or on stage that is.

Here is a synopsis of the draft I have, it's really just a script right now without much play direction and only a bit of scenes mentioned.

Bundles' older sister, who named him that as a child because she always carried him around calling him her bundle of joy, has a son and daughter-in-law who married a couple of years ago. We learn very early on in the play that the daughter-in-law, who Raves about how wonderful her wedding dress was and how inexpensive, physically cannot have children.

They discuss adoption and the fact that the son is the milkman who delivers, among other places, to this orphanage headed by "the crazy lady." He has laughed and looked in on them and made sure things were okay, just like Bundles does, because this woman drinks but he has never noticed any serious problem.

They know money will be tight since it is early 1933, but President Roosevelt has instilled confidence once again, and a part-time job has opened up because Warbucks needs an extra maid. The daughter-in-law decides she will apply and if she gets the job that they can do it.

Fast forward a bit and she has the job but something interesting has happened. I use the character names from Annie now for sake of ease. They discuss adopting Molly who is so adorable and according to the stories loves playing in the laundry and other cute things. Miss Hannigan would probably love that. But she was acting odd and suddenly didn't want to talk about adoption, and according to Bundles older sister, Bundles was approached asking if he had found anything odd about his laundry bag.

It is revealed by the daughter-in-law that Annie is now staying at Warbucks. This seems extra strange and confusing to the son because he seems to remember that was the description of the girl who Miss Hannigan said snuck into bundles laundry basket

There is confusion about whether they will be able to adopt any of the girls - there is the thought that if Annie finds her parents then Warbucks might want to adopt anyway and if he does then they worry that Molly might be suggested by Annie.

That is however broken by the daughter-in-law being visited by an uncle of hers. He had been taking care of a couple of great nephews but he and his wife are elderly and their health is poor. They took care of them for a couple of years but now this son and daughter-in-law, the mean characters, are asked to do it instead.

All seems well. She has her job, the older one is 12 and so he can even get some part-time work somewhere to help out, and she might be able to work a little more too. She used to volunteer at the 60th Street pool all the time and can help Annie with swimming lessons. As she leaves for a staff meeting which has urgently been called by Warbucks, it is figured that they have the family that God made for them. And maybe thoughts of adoption were just to get them ready for these boys.

And then, the first part of the play ends with her coming in crying, saying she hates her wedding dress, and insisting that they adopt every single orphan in Miss Hannigan's orphanage. Why? Because she has just learned that Annie revealed that the orphanage was hiding a secret Factory using the orphans as slave labor, and she is distraught because she forced one of those orphans to show her wedding dress.

The second half is shorter than the first half, and that might be one thing where things need moved around a bit. (Actually there is one comical scene where they are out to eat at the same place a drunk Miss Hannigan is, and Miss Hannigan insults the woman. ( she comes back to their table saying that Miss Hannigan told that old joke about how yes she was drunk, but the daughter-in-law is ugly, and when she wakes up in the morning she'll be sober, but the daughter-in-law will still be ugly.)

The second half starts with the mom, bundle sister, assuring the couple that they did all they could and encouraging her son that he did look for the right thing, that while he may not have known about the illegal sewing operation, because people like him and bundles were watching out for the girls, maybe that's why there wasn't any real violence, why they never noticed any bruises, and so on. Because Miss Hannigan was making everyone think all was well so there would be no reason to question things.

The second half then has a bunch of planning about how to catch Miss Hannigan and figuring out how to incorporate any number of the girls into their family as they celebrate Christmas that Christmas eve, with a scene of the boys opening small gifts early because Warbucks wants all his staff there early Christmas morning. Annie's parents have been found supposedly, and that makes things even more confusing for the couple.

The next to last scene is a few days later. There was historic snow storm on December 26th that year so she would be kept a few days but after that it's a it is announced one orphan will be taken in by them and that Warbucks has found homes for all of them. The trust funds for each orphan set up by the billionaire mean that money will not be an issue.

The last scene has that orphan that they are adopting coming home and becoming part of the family. She has not been through the whole house, which is small but there is an extra room which was painted pink in anticipation of a girl. The joke is when the boys get there that they don't want to live in a pink room. Anyway, the wedding dress is in a small attic that they discover quickly.

They hear a cry of oh my goodness look at this dress. The daughter-in-law is distraught at first, she is afraid that this brings back some traumatic memories from that orphanage. But as they gather in the living room the orphan remarks that it is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

The daughter-in-law is unsure of how to explain that she didn't know that that was why it was so inexpensive and so on, but then that orphan explains. She says that one night late at night as she was so frustrated at having to sew it, Annie told her to Simply believe and that one day she would be wearing that wedding dress. And the daughter-in-law promises that one day, their new girl will indeed wear that wedding dress.

I don't know if you think that it's even workable to try to get something like this accepted or even sold to the owners of the copyright. If you don't,  I can just post it here as a story. Fanfiction .net doesn't  accept scripts, and it feels like more would be needed anyway. However, it was a fun play idea that I came up with last year and worked on for a bit so I enjoy at least sharing about it.