"I like traveling," says the 10-year-old actor, now performing the title role in the national tour of the show, "but my favorite part is being onstage. It's like my home. I feel so free onstage. I love it so much."

Balon has racked up an impressive performance résumé, with roles in productions of "Cats Jr.," "A Christmas Carol" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." But when it comes to "Annie," the Orlando, Fla., native is a veteran.

She's performed in seven local Florida productions, as well as logging three years in the cast of the national tour, the last year as Annie. She's cut several "Annie" CDs, including a 30th-anniversary soundtrack with Carol Burnett and Kathie Lee Gifford, which will be released this summer. So it would be an understatement to claim that she has the songs down. "I could sing them in my sleep, I know them so well," Balon says in a phone interview from Boston.

In a display of professional manners far eclipsing some of her older show-biz colleagues, Balon also said she loves her castmates, her director, Martin Charnin (the musical's original lyricist), and especially her co-star, a 6-year-old terrier mix named Mikey, who plays the dog, Sandy.

The young actor identifies with the optimism of Little Orphan Annie, the comic-book character turned musical star who has been charming audiences since the show's Broadway run opened in 1977. "Annie" won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and launched a handful of national tours and international productions, as well as a 1982 film.

The "Annie" industry launched countless show-business careers, most notably those of Sarah Jessica Parker and Andrea McArdle, as well as "Life After Tomorrow," a documentary with interviews of some 40 former cast members.

Just as significant is the story of the career launched by the first Sandy, who was cast in 1976 by William Berloni, then a 19-year-old wannabe actor interning at Goodspeed Opera House, in East Haddam, Conn. Producers couldn't afford a dog trainer, and all the paid staffers threatened to quit if they had to work with the dog. "The producer needed a sucker," which is how Berloni says he got the job for the debut production of "Annie." "Being young and silly, I agreed."

You couldn't rent a dog, so Berloni grabbed a camera and went casting at the local animal shelter, looking for an old-fashioned mutt, described in the script as "a sandy-colored dog of no distinguishable breed." He had never even read a book about working with animals, but drew upon his experience of using positive reinforcement to train his family's beloved collie to direct the original Sandy.

Before "Annie," animals were used in shows mostly as onstage props, for comic effect. The musical set in an orphanage was the first to feature a dog as a character in three scenes, with the action of the play depending on his actions.

The show wasn't a success in its first production, but when famed producer Mike Nichols transferred the musical to New York a year later, Berloni got a call. " 'Annie' opened on Broadway, Sandy became a huge star, and I became a world-famous animal trainer," he says. "Following my good fortune, I've continued to play with dogs and made a good living at it."

Now 51, Berloni has trained animals - dogs, cats, birds, pigs and even a rat - for hundreds of Broadway and off-Broadway shows, touring productions, movies, television shows and White House appearances, yet he still hasn't received any formal training.

"The only teachers I've ever had have been the other animals," he says. "Every new animal I've worked with on every new show teaches me something. I don't want to know how to dominate animals. I don't want to know how to force them to perform. I want them to do a behavior every night onstage in front of a group of people for a reward."

Another 'Tomorrow,' another Sandy

* "ANNIE" plays at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday,; 8 p.m. Friday to Sunday,; and 7 p.m. Sunday, with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. The show plays at Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $25 to $55, plus service fees ($15 student tickets for weeknight performances), available at 801-581-7100 or www.KingTix.com.