The tomorrows look sunny for early-shining musical actress

In the musical ''Annie," an orphan girl meets the rich Daddy Warbucks, impresses him with her pluck and heart, and, through him, achieves a satisfying new life.

Andrea C. Ross, a 14-year-old from Franklin, whose pure, clear voice has gotten her steady work in musicals around the region, including ''Annie" at the Trinity Repertory Company, is having something of an Annie experience herself.

No less a figure than the biggest Daddy Warbucks of the musical world -- British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber -- has taken her under his wing. The creator of ''Cats" and ''The Phantom of the Opera" is featuring her at his three-day Sydmonton Festival in England next month.

Ross, who is in the 8th grade at the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter School in Franklin, has gotten important local recognition as well. She became the youngest person in the 23-year-history of the Elliot Norton Awards to win best actress for her work in three shows in 2004: ''A Little Night Music," at the Lyric Stage Company, and ''The Sound of Music" and ''Ramona Quimby," both at the Wheelock Family Theatre.

''She's brilliant," says Amanda Dehnert, the acting artistic director of Providence's Trinity Rep, who directed her in ''Annie" in 2003. ''She's a very natural singer and an incredible actress. Her ability to imagine herself in a situation is what we all strive for, and she seems to do it intuitively."

Ross lives with her parents, William, an engineer, and Paula, who works part-time at a medical devices company. She grew up singing around the house and play-acting, her mother says, but she also played basketball and softball, and took art lessons.

Theater won out.

Ross started doing community theater when she was 8. Her professional break came when she was cast, at age 10, as the lead in ''Tuck Everlasting" at the Wheelock.

''She had an inner light that I think has grown tremendously," says co-artistic director Jane Staab, who directed that show. ''Something about her ability to express a thought, with her face, with her body, just stood out for me. She had everything."

Staab says the only advice she gave Ross was to sing every day. And she did.

She started studying voice, and now works with Marsha Vleck. Ross played Young Lizzie in ''Lizzie Borden: The Musical," at Stoneham Theatre and won accolades for her performance in ''Annie."

When Spiro Veloudos , producing artistic director of the Lyric, was casting ''A Little Night Music," two veteran actors recommended Ross for the role of the 13-year-old Fredrika. Veloudos says that after he heard her sing, there was no contest.

''Aside from the fact that she has a fabulous singing voice and is very cute, there's a real special quality about her that very few have, especially at such a young age," he says.

The Lloyd Webber connection got started in November, when Paula Ross happened to watch a VH1 program about stage mothers and saw the name of Aggie Gold, whose New York-based Fresh Faces Agency handles child actors. She and Andrea sent her a demo.

''Quite honestly, I've been in the business 30 years and I've not heard a voice like this," Gold says. ''I have clients on Broadway who have wonderful voices. Nobody compares."

Ross and her mother traveled to Long Island to meet the agent, who not only signed her but also said that she planned to contact Lloyd Webber about her.

''My mom and I are like, right," Ross says. ''And she actually did."

Gold e-mailed Lloyd Webber's assistant the demo of Ross singing ''Unexpected Song," from his 1985 musical ''Song and Dance," and ''Popular," from the current Broadway hit ''Wicked." Impressed, the composer, who was traveling, arranged to meet with Ross in California.

They met on the afternoon before the Academy Awards. Lloyd Webber heard Ross perform six songs. Then the singer, her agent, and the composer had lunch.

''We went to the restaurant at the hotel and he wanted to sit next to me so we could talk and he could hear me more," Ross recalls. ''I was really nervous -- it was more of an out-of-body experience for me, because I was eating a humongous chicken Caesar salad that was bigger than my head, and thinking, 'Here I am, sitting next to one of the biggest musical theater legends of all times.' "

Gold says Lloyd Webber wasn't sure what to do with the singer because of her age. Cast her in one of his shows? Write a show for her? Make a record with her?

Ross says Lloyd Webber told her it's hard to find work for her because her voice is mature. ''Being a kid in a show, you don't want to sound like an adult," she says. ''It's a weird age to be."

He mentions the Sydmonton Festival, at which he tries out new work in front of friends, many of whom are in the entertainment industry.

''I'd heard in interviews that he may seem intimidating, but he wasn't at all; he was so kind," Ross says. ''He's very generous toward kids trying to make it. He was helped in the past so he tries to help others."

He invited her to sing eight songs at the festival, which is 30 years old. One is ''All the Love I Have," from Lloyd Webber's ''The Beautiful Game," for which he had new lyrics written.

Last week Lloyd Webber declined to be interviewed; a press representative said that the composer preferred to let his actions speak for themselves.

Her parents say that they'll support their daughter if she wants to move forward. And if she wants to stop, that is also fine.

''But her thing is, she'd rather be busy than not," says Paula Ross. ''And she does better in school when she's doing shows because she has to time-manage." So far it has seemed to work: Ross gets almost straight As.

Right now, she's getting ready to sing in front of Lloyd Webber and about 100 invited guests. After that, life goes back to normal: two weeks of tennis camp and then on to Noble and Greenough School in Dedham in the fall.

Ross says she's still ''in the air" about meeting Lloyd Webber. But this move hasn't seemed to turn her into a pint-sized prima donna. (She stands at 5 feet, 2 inches.) All of the directors who have worked with her speak of her mature work ethic, her kindness, and her sense of humor.

And her friends are behind her, too. ''Nothing's come between us," Ross says. ''I'm still the same dorky Andrea that I have been with them. Some are into theater, some are not -- they think it's awesome. They've all got my back."

To hear Andrea Ross sing, visit www.boston.com/globe.