We chatted with Mr. Scarpelli (a little New York Times-style for this Arts profile seems appropriate) about his night job.

What did you do to research the character of Daddy Warbucks? What interesting discoveries did you make about the character/the Annie comic/the musical?

I jumped into Little Orphan Annieland for a while, and Warbucks is fascinating… Harold Gray, the comic’s creator, was ultra-conservative, and Warbucks epitomized the free-market ideal of the Self-Made Man. “No help needed—I can pull myself up from pauper to billionaire in no time—this is America!” An unabashed war profiteer in both World Wars, he declared himself a general in WW2 and fought the Axis powers on his own even before the US had entered the war (“Sometimes, Annie, you have to do these things yourself…”).

He operated above the law and his enemies tended to disappear mysteriously. Those enemies were, among others, scheming “foreigners” of every description, Communists, Union organizers, corrupt politicians and assorted “pinkos.” Despite being the richest man in the world, he put on no airs. When Daddy went flat broke, as he did every so often, he’d sometimes have to borrow from Annie’s piggy bank, leaving her an IOU until he (inevitably) regained his billions.

Warbucks in the musical is much less volatile and shady, and he certainly has no political soapbox. We’re in the depths of the Great Depression, and the country is at its lowest. He’s a Republican, yes, and he mistrusts Democrats, but he knows he must work with the Roosevelt administration to get his empire—and the nation’s workers—back to work. We’re on the brink of the New Deal, this massive, nationwide job-creating, faith-restoring mobilization, and Warbucks has a great part in igniting that fuse. And what’s the spark? Where does the optimism come from? The hope for a better tomorrow even though today is awful? A penniless kid. “The least among us.” I think Harold Gray might even approve.

What do you do to get into character before the show?

I age myself a bit. A few extra shadows. Some highlights under the eyebrows. (Eyebrows = comedy.) Technically, I’m about 15 or 20 years too young for Warbucks. But I’ve read 50 since I was 20. I put on the Big Boxy Suit. I say “Annie” a few times to get the broad A in my head. I’ve given him a big, Patrician New York accent—broad As, soft Rs, but well short of Connecticut lockjaw. I make sure he has all his cufflinks and stickpins ready. Daddy requires a little bling. I glower at my husband (Peter Budinger, who plays Rooster, one of the musical’s villains), whose dressing table is next to mine. Playing enemies is a good way to relieve those little home tensions… “You forgot to take out the garbage…” “Wait… WHO forgot to take out the garbage?”

That’s it, really. Then I drink a gallon of hot tea with honey and hope for the best. (And I make sure not to look at my own bank balance.)

Albert Finney played Warbucks in the 1982 film version of Annie, which was directed by the great John Huston. Favorite Finney performance? Huston film?

I’m sure I should say Tom Jones or The Dresser or The Gathering Storm…but honestly, my favorite Finney movie is kind of a kitschy one: Murder on the Orient Express. He’s a great Poirot in high camp mode, and that movie’s a hell of a lot of fun.

As for Huston, it has to be a Bogart film. I’ll let The African Queen edge out The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo. Actually, now that I think about it, my Warbucks voice is sort of Hepburn in a Bogey register…

What would Daddy Warbucks make of the current economic situation in the US?

Well, the situation in Annie is a direct analog of where we are right now. This isn’t surprising: it was written in 1977 and set in 1933, both times when we were also facing huge economic crisis and a new Presidential administration. The situation is shockingly similar in terms of both the dire state of the nation and the need for all sides to come together. I think Daddy would tell all parties to put all the their hogwash aside, stop wasting time and energy attacking each other, and come together on what common ground they have for the sake of keeping the country together. He would flush all the self-serving pundits and commentators and get men and women of power to roll up their sleeves, make some sacrifices, and create a country for us to believe in.

What real life economic player in today’s world is closest to Daddy Warbucks?

Oh, gosh… Probably Warren Buffett at the beginning of the musical and Michael Bloomberg at the end of the musical. And Oprah at intermission.

Diablo Theatre Company’s production of Annie plays at the Lesher Center for the Arts through October 2. For tickets, click here.

The musical, scheduled for a Broadway revival in 2012, follows the exploits of feisty orphan Annie and is based on Harold Gray’s famous comic strip.

Meaghan, 11, appears as Emma, an orphan friend to title character Annie. “She makes sure we don’t get in trouble with the woman who runs the orphanage,” Meaghan explains. Her mother plays the role of Cecille, the maid and seamstress to Annie. “She’s sweet and kind, and dedicated to making things run smoothly,” Diella Wottrich says.

They might be speaking of themselves: during an interview they coach and gently correct each other, sometimes overlapping in their earnest efforts to answer.

“I never really pictured myself doing this,” Wottrich begins. “I was so shy.” It’s hard to believe this tall, head-turning woman, who speaks expressively and with good humor, ever hid behind a parent’s leg. Miraculously, the passage of time and opportunities to emerge from her instinctive shell led her to where she stands today. “Now, I feel like I’m not complete,” she says, about the periods when she is away from the stage.

Meaghan, on the other hand, is 100 percent hooked and full of third-grade fearlessness. She’s already well-versed in rules of the stage, having appeared with The Ballet School, Town Hall Theatre Company and with her mother in Contra Costa Music Theatre’s Oklahoma! “Being onstage at the Lesher was just amazing,” she says, leaning forward, her blue eyes wide with wonder. “If I looked, I could see people…but you aren’t supposed to look at specific people.”

Her mother, drawn to the twin magnets of music and dance, remembers seeing a Broadway production of Annie at the age of 11. “I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, I would love to be on the stage doing that!’” After high school experiences in musical theater, she pursued degrees in psychology, married, and started a family; performing in Marin’s community theaters and holding onto a “long term dream of having children who were interested in theater.”

Now, spliced between work and children, Wottrich appears in East Bay productions. “I have an agreement with my family that I do one a year,” she says, “although this year, Annie came along after Oklahoma and we just couldn’t pass it up.”

Like her mother, Meaghan is more than a one-trick theater pony. She’s an avid soccer player, sharing a dedication to the sport with her father. “I like being goalie best,” she says. “You have to always keep an eye on the ball.” On stage, she’s much the same, saying, “I concentrate on myself to do the right thing and I watch other people to make sure it’s all ok.”

They both learned more than just lines from their time on stage. “I’ve learned this before, but I keep learning that people who are mean in the play are actually really, really nice,” Meaghan says. Her mother, practical, but no less magical, says she discovered “how much I appreciate that we have the same passion and this time together.”

Asked about the future, Wottrich says, “I’d love to have a leading role opportunity…but this is just fine-ensemble roles-as long as I am dancing and singing.”

Asked if she’d like a leading role, Meaghan nearly jumps out of her chair. “Yes, I definitely do!” she says. “I want to continue doing this for a long, long time.”

Annie runs through October 2; for more information go to www.dloc.org.