- This article is about the musical. For the film see Annie Get Your Gun
(film). For the Squeeze single, see Annie Get Your Gun (song).
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by
Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his
sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of
Annie Oakley (1860-1926), who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband,
Frank Butler.[1]
Berlin had taken on the job after the original choice, Jerome Kern, collapsed and died
suddenly. It is said that the showstopper song, "There's No
Business Like Show Business", was almost left out of the show altogether because Berlin, wrongly, got the impression that
the producers, Richard Rodgers and Oscar
Hammerstein II, did not like it. The original 1946 production was a hit and had long runs in both New York and London,
spawning many revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Other
songs that became hits include "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun," "They Say It's Wonderful,"
"Anything You Can Do."
Plot summary
When a traveling Wild West show visits her town, Annie Oakley enters a shooting
contest, wins, and is asked to join the show. She has fallen in love with the star of the show, Frank Butler, and agrees to join,
although she has no idea what "show business" is--she is informed with the classic song, "There's No Business Like Show
Business". Over the course of the musical, Frank, although insisting that the girl he wants will "wear satin..and smell of
cologne" ("The Girl That I Marry"), becomes enamoured of the tomboyish Annie. Unfortunately, his ego is bruised and he becomes
jealous when Annie becomes a star, and he walks out on her.
After various complications, which keep Annie and Frank apart, they come together again, only to have one last shooting duel
in the finale -- "Anything You Can Do". Annie deliberately loses to Frank to soothe his ego, and they go off together. (In the
1999 revival, the match ends in a tie.)
Characters
- Annie Oakley -- a sharpshooter in the Wild West show
- Frank Butler -- the Wild West show's star
- Foster Wilson -- hotel owner
- Chief Sitting Bull -- Sioux warrior; Annie's protector, but used by Pawnee Bill's competing show
- Tommy Keeler -- knife-thrower in the Wild West show; Winnie's boyfriend; part Native American
- Charlie Davenport -- manager of the Wild West show
- Winnie Tate -- Dolly's sister; Tommy's girlfriend and his assistant in the knife-throwing act
- Col. Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) -- owner of the Wild West show
- Dolly Tate -- Frank's assistant; Winnie's sister
- Pawnee Bill -- owner of a competing western show
- Nellie -- Annie's sister*
- Jessie -- Annie's sister*
- Little Jake -- Annie's brother*
- Minnie -- Annie's sister (written out of the 1999 revival)
- *In the 1999 revival, Annie had three siblings rather than four
Musical numbers (1946)
Notes:
- "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" was written by Berlin for the 1966 revival, sung by Annie and Frank, and was also included in the
1999 revival
- "Let's Go West Again" was written by Berlin for the 1950 film but was not used. However, there are recordings by both
Betty Hutton and Judy Garland
Productions
1946 and 1947 productions
Annie Get Your Gun was first staged on Broadway at the Imperial Theater on May 16 1946 and ran
for 1,147 performances. Directed by Joshua Logan, Ethel
Merman starred as Annie Oakley with Ray Middleton in the leading male role as Frank
Butler. Foster Wilson was played by Art Barnett, Chief Sitting Bull was Harry Bellaver, Tommy Keeler was Kenneth Bowers, Charlie Davenport was Marty May, and Buffalo Bill Cody
was William O'Neal.
The show opened on the West End at the Coliseum on June 7 1947 and ran for 1,304
performances. Dolores Gray played Annie with Bill Johnson as Butler.
The first Australian production opened at His Majesty's
Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, on July 19 1947. It
starred Evie Hayes as Annie with Webb Tilton as Frank Butler.
Later Australian productions have featured Gloria Dawn, Nancye
Hayes, Toni Lamond, Bunny Gibson and Rhonda Burchmore as Annie.
Mary Martin starred as Annie Oakley in a U.S. national tour, which started on October 3,
1947 in Dallas, Texas. Other cities the touring company played were Chicago and Los Angeles. Martin left the tour in mid-1948.
(New York Times, October 4, 1947 and April 26, 1948)
1963 recording and 1966 revival
There is a 1963 studio
recording starring Doris Day and Robert
Goulet.
The 1966 Broadway revival starred Ethel Merman reprising her role as "Annie", with
Bruce Yarnell as "Frank Butler" and Jerry Orbach as
"Charles Davenport". It opened first at the Music Theater of Lincoln
Center. It was transferred to the Broadway Theatre on September 21 and ran for 78 performances.
This production was telecast in an abbreviated ninety-minute version by NBC on March 19 1967 and is the only musical revived at Lincoln Center during the 1960s
to be telecast.
1999 revival
With a revised book and new orchestrations, the 1999 revival had a pre-Broadway engagement from December 29 1998 to January 24
1999 at the Kennedy Center
in Washington, D.C. Previews began on Broadway on February 2, 1999 at the
Marquis Theatre, with an official opening date of March 4, 1999. This revival starred
Bernadette Peters as "Annie" and Tom Wopat as
"Frank Butler", with direction by Graciela Daniele and choreography by Jeff Calhoun. Peters won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Actress (Musical)
and the production won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
This production was structured as a "show-within-a-show" and opened with "Frank Butler" alone on stage introducing the main
characters and singing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is reprised when "Annie" agrees to join the traveling Wild
West show. The production dropped several songs (including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "I'm A Bad, Bad Man", and "I'm an Indian
Too"), but included "An Old-Fashioned Wedding". There were several major dance numbers added, including one for "I Got the Sun in
the Morning". A sub-plot, which had been dropped from the 1966 revival, involving the romance between Winnie, the young sister of
Frank Butler's assistant and Tommy, her part-Native-American boyfriend was also included, and Winnie is Dolly's sister rather
than her daughter.
While Peters was on vacation, All My Children star Susan Lucci made her Broadway debut as Annie from December 27, 1999 until Jan. 16, 2000; Peters returned on
January 18, 2000. Cheryl Ladd took over the lead role on September 6, 2000 from Peters.
Country music superstar Reba McEntire made her Broadway debut in the role from January 26,
2001 to June 22, 2001 opposite Brent Barrett as Frank Butler. Crystal Bernard left the national tour on June 23, 2001 to join the Broadway cast with tickets selling
at the 70 percent of capacity range through most of the summer. The revival closed on September 1, 2001 after 35 previews and
1,046 regular performances.
The U. S. national tour started in Dallas on July 25, 2000 with Marilu Henner as Annie and Rex Smith as Frank.[2]
Recent productions
In 2004, Marina Prior and Scott Irwin starred in an
Australian production of the 1999 Broadway rewrite of the show.
In 2006, the Prince Music Theater, in Philadelphia, PA, revived the 1966 Lincoln Center Theater
version, running for one month. This production starred Andrea McArdle (the original
Annie of the 1977 Broadway musical Annie), Jeffrey Coon as
Frank Butler, John Scherer as Charlie Davenport, Chris Councill as Buffalo Bill, Mary Martello as Dolly Tate and Arthur Ryan as
Sitting Bull. The production was well received by both critics and audience. The production was directed by Richard M. Parison,
Jr. and choreographed by Mercedes Ellington with music direction by Eric Barnes.[3]
Film and television versions
In 1950, Metro Goldwyn Mayer made a well-received movie version of the musical. In 1957, a production starring Mary Martin as Annie and John Raitt as Frank Butler was broadcast on
NBC. In 1967, the Lincoln Center production described above, starring Ethel Merman and Bruce
Yarnell, was broadcast on NBC.
Notes
- ^ A number of Internet websites claim that the musical is based on
Walter Havighurst's book, "Annie Oakley of the
Wild West," but that claim is obviously wrong, since the book was written in 1954, eight years after the musical was first
produced.
- ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/54368.html
- ^ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/103883.html
References
External links
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