The very act of embarking on a lone round-the-world cycle as a woman in 1894 was nothing less than radical, but Annie Cohen Kopchovsky didn’t stop there. She spun tales at every turn—she was a doctor! A lawyer! Educated at Harvard! Beloved by royalty! Robbed by armed bandits! To her, the facts were negligible and the story was everything.

Our Annie is brilliant but flawed. She is carrying more than the average person has to. Born in Latvia to Jewish parents, she and her family immigrated to America and lived in near poverty in Boston’s tenements, experiencing devastating bereavements and facing anti-Semitism.

The odds were against her from the start. No matter how naturally dazzling and brilliant Annie could be, she’d always have to fight harder than her more privileged peers, and certain opportunities would simply be off limits to her. In creating the alter ego of Annie Londonderry, she could become the person she’d always wanted to be, and the person she might well have been, had she been dealt a luckier hand in life.

I felt musical theatre was the perfect medium to explore Annie’s story: a way for us to celebrate her inventiveness while also interrogating it. Musicalizing her adventure enabled us to have fun and really lean in to Annie’s natural aptitude for entertaining, while also examining what lay beneath her moxie and show(wo)manship. 

What began as a celebratory piece—charting the impressive cycling achievements of a forgotten woman from history—became more of a deep dive into the complex and compelling woman behind the bravado.

I fell in love with Annie and her story immediately. A complicated, smart, and contradictory character who had an extraordinary life. An all-too-common tale of an exceptional woman whose story was buried in history. I have loved bringing her back to life.

We adore Annie because she is difficult, funny, and flawed; she embodies the implications of what she had to sacrifice to achieve what she did, and the inevitable casualties along the way.
The script is layered and the songs are eclectic, both playful and beautiful. I can’t think of a better way to tell this theatrical story than through a musical.

I was interested in really bringing out Annie’s theatricality and the timelessness of what she represents through all elements of the production.

Annie speaks so profoundly to us today. A truly intersectional immigrant narrative asking complicated questions about how our class, economics, race, faith, heritage, gender, and sexuality intersect. The characters we create to survive, and the performances and lies we tell, are potent and intoxicating.

As a parent myself, I was excited by a historical narrative of a mother who pursued an exceptional goal. Only now are we beginning to see a truly complex representation of motherhood in theatre, film, and television.

A very special new musical I have loved directing with an amazing team of creatives, many of whom are also mothers of young children. As Annie said: “I am a New Woman, if that means that I believe I can do anything that any man can do.”