IN October, the entire week-long run of Chris Moreno’s production of Annie at York Barbican was cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances”.

Those circumstances, unofficially poor ticket sales, surely could have been foreseen after the limp performance of the same Moreno touring vehicle for excitable Su Pollard 11 months earlier at the Grand Opera House.

It was natural to wonder whether one of America’s most sentimental, sweet-toothed and, darn it, pesky musicals had no Tomorrow, with its story of irrepressible/irritating little Annie being given the best Christmas ever by New York financier Oliver Warbucks. Along comes Nikolai Foster’s wonderful show at the West Yorkshire Playhouse to confound such thoughts, however.

The sun will come out today, tomorrow and all the way through to January 21. and it would be no surprise to see Foster’s production – the first new version of Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin’s Broadway musical for ten years – being snapped up for the West End.

Let’s consider what forces were in favour of breathing new life into Annie as the WYP’s choice of Christmas musical. Firstly, there is the setting, Christmas in 1933 New York, and then there is the background of a “whole nation suffering from an economic downturn”. Ring any bells in 2011?

Along comes “one plucky little girl who knows that one day soon everything is going to turn out just fine”.

Well, nothing else is working right now, with the only Maggie Thatcher on call being Meryl Streep’s celluloid version in The Iron Lady.

Then add the momentum provided by North Yorkshire director Foster’s Playhouse production of A Christmas Carol last Christmas, and, finally, face the (loud) evidence of just how popular red-haired orphan Annie is with girls of a certain age, seven and upwards, and dressed up for the occasion.

Walking into the Quarry Theatre on Wednesday night, your reviewer was struck by the sight and sound of row upon row of schoolgirls…and hardly a boy in sight.

The Grinch in this old boy was duly knocked out of him by a dazzling, moving, humorous, colourful show, superbly choreographed by Nick Winston, energetically and passionately performed by local young performers and professionals alike, and directed with a breathtaking sense of movement, flow, emotion, drama and the Christmas factor by Foster.

Sound design by Sebastian Frost is outstanding, from the pre-show rumble of the subway trains to the echoing razzmatazz of a tap dancer’s feet in a particularly slick scene change.

The designs of Colin Richmond are worthy of an award. Everything works with style, be it drawing deserved attention to musical director George Dyer’s band or conveying the austere, shambolic conditions of the New York City Municipal Orphanage and the contrasting splendour of billionaire industrialist Warbucks’ mansion.

A revolve stage that spins round to reveal itself to be a subway train is a stunning sleight of hand, and Richmond’s costume designs – 140 of them, apparently – are sharp and witty and suitably scruffy for the children.

And what of the performances? Sophie Downham (alternating the role with Phoebe Roberts) captures Annie’s pluck, pushiness and pathos to go with natural stage presence, drawing closing cheers as if she had just won The X Factor.

Sarah Ingram’s sozzled, sour Miss Hannigan, the orphanage tyrant, cradles a bottle like a lover; Duncan Preston has the measure of Warbucks, full of gravitas yet kindness; and Leeds actress Verity Rushworth is utterly lovely as Warbucks’ PA, Grace Farrell.

Emma Barton’s Lily St Regis is as gauche as you could wish for and Darren Barton brings a cockerel strut to conman Rooster, while the arch Sevan Stephans gives a gem of a cameo as President Roosevelt.

Foster’s further triumph lies in the children’s ensemble of orphans, who are indeed a knockout in It’s A Hard Knock Life.

Annie might not cure the economic pneumonia but she and her thrilling show sure chase away the winter blues.

Annie, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until January 21 2012. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk