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Annie Get Your Gun
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--- PreviousReview ---
Easy to sing, easy to say, easy to remember and applicable to everyday events' is a good rule for a
phrase
-- Irving Berlin in a 1954 interview.
Easy to sing, easy to say, easy to remember and applicable to everyday events' is a good rule for a phrase ---Irving Berlin
Berlin was truly a man who stuck to his own advice. his tunes and lyrics have embedded themselves into the public's consciousness. Annie Get Your Gun contains a mind-boggling array of beloved and delightful as ever standards.
As for Bernadette Peters, I couldn't agree more with Susan Davidson's opening statement in her review of the show during it's DC tenure. There is indeed no talent like Bernadette Peters'!
While Her Annie does go a bit overboard on a hokey hillbilly twang, she delivers so solidly in everything else -- singing, acting, comedic flair -- that you almost end up liking it. Irving Berlin may have written this little hit factory with Ethel Merman in mind, but I'm reasonably sure he'd be the first to applaud Peters' Annie.
As for the man Annie is so gungho to nab, even if it means deliberately losing the final shooting match, I think Tom Wopat deserves better than "pleasant." His Frank Butler may be no Rhett Butler and his baritone not as poperatic as Howard Keel's, but he's got his own endearing brand of laid back dash and strong song delivery. Most importantly, his feeling for and interaction with Annie comes through with warmth and convinction and his "My Defenses Are Down" solo and his "An Old Fashioned Wedding" and "Anything You Can Do" duets with Annie are loaded with verve and charm.
The show has too large a cast for extensive individual comments, especially when the star has so many strong points worth mentioning. However, the ensemble does have its standouts. Valerie Wright as Dolly Tate the demon spinster and Frank Butler's assistant and Nicole Ruth Snelson as her underaged kid sister Winnie add much to the comic and musical pleasures of the production. Andrew Palermo as Winnie's half-Indian boyfriend is one of the show's outstanding hoofers.
The disappointments Susan referred to haven't disappeared between the trip from the Beltway to Broadway. Peter Stone's jokey updating succeeds in getting a lot of laughs, but I hardly think that the comedy writers for Saturday Night Live need worry about their jobs. Though the much mentioned politically incorrect Indian songs have been deleted, Chief Sitting Bull is no less a stereotype now that he comes off as a savvy romantic counselor and entrepreneur. The show-within-a-show idea is a good one but too intrusively so. Too bad Mr. Stone, director Daniele and set designer Tony Walton didn't see Roger Rees's very smart use of this device in last summer's Williamstown Theatre Festival revival of The Rivals The traveling theater troupe who made that play their current performance piece never intruded into the play itself as is the case here, right to the set (see link).
Susan's opinion that the choreography by Graciela Daniele and Jeff Calhoun is only occasionally inspired remains valid. Those inspired dances are most in evidence during the second act -- notably the lovely ballroom number at its beginning. Inspired or not, it is all lively and there's more of it than we've seen in many a recent musical. As for the culotte outfit Susan didn't like, William Ivey Long has not given Peters' a new one. But, oh, that great hourglass waistline ball gown and some of the other fun fashions. I'd settle for a few mistakes in my closet for a few of the "drop dead" flattering numbers the star as well as the ensemble get to wear.
At 2 hours and 40 minutes, the Broadway production has apparently been trimmed down by at least ten minutes. Another ten minute slimming would further help to keep the sluggish moments at a minimum.
Finally, as a footnote to Susan's historical footnote about Irving Berlin's failure to make it as a Kennedy Center Honoree. He also never had a Broadway theater named in his honor. It would be a coup of good public relations if the Marriott Marquis hotel would follow the title "I'll Share It All With You" as an incentive to rename the theater it houses The Irving Berlin Theater at the Marriott Marquis.
LINKS
The CD of the Current Annie Get Your Gun
For earlier CD versions of the show go here
| Production Notes
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin Book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, newly revised by Peter Stone. Directed by Graciela Daniele Co-choreographed by Graciela Daniele and Jeff Calhoun. >Cast Bernadette Peters - Annie Oakley Tom Wopat - Frank Butler Dolly Tate - Valerie Wright Tommy Keeler - Andrew Palermo Winnie Tate - Nicole Ruth Snelsom Mac/Running Deer - Kevin Bailey Charlie Davenport - Peter Marx Foster Wilson/ Pawnee Bill - Ronn Carroll Chief Sitting Bull - Gregory Zaragoza Jessie Oakley - Cassidy Ladden Nellie Oakley - Mia Walker Little Jake - Trevor McQueen Eaton Eagle Feather - Carlos Lopez Dining Car Waiter - Brad Bradley Sleeping Car Porter - Patrick Wetzel Band Leader - Marvin Laird Mrs. Schuyler Adams - Julia Fowler Syliva Sylvia Potter-Porter - Jenny-Lynn Suckling With: Shaun Amyot, Randy Donaldson, Madeleine Ehlert, Kisha Howard, Adrienne Hurd, Keri Lee, Desiree Parkman, Eric Sciotto, Kelli Bond Severson, Timothy Edward Smith, David Villella Set design: Tony Walton Costume design: William Ivey Long Lighting Design: Beverly Emmons Musical Direction: Marvin Laird Musical Supervision: John McDaniel Sound design: G. Thomas Clark Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway (212/ 307-4100 398-8383, or (212) 575-1044) () Previews 2/02/99-3/03/99; opened 3/04/99 Reviewed by Elyse Sommerbased on 3/09 performance |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
There's No Business Like Show Business/Frank and CompanyDoin' What Comes Natur'lly/Annie, Kids and Foster Wilson The Girl That I Marry/Frank and Annie You Can't Get a Man With a Gun/Annie There''s No Business Like Show Business/ (reprise)/Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie and Annie I'll Share It All With You/Tommy, Winnie and Company Moonshine Lullaby/Annie, Kids and Ensemble Trio There's No Business Like Show Business (reprise)/Annie They Say It's Wonderful.Annie and Frank My Defenses Are Down/Frank and Young Men The Trick/Annie and Company Finale Act I: You Can't Get a Man With a Gun (reprise)/.Annie |
Act Two
Lost in His Arms/AnnieWho Do You Love, I Hope/Tommy, Winnie and Company I Got the Sun in the Morning/Annie and Company An Old Fashioned Wedding/Annie and Frank The Girl That I Marry (reprise)/Frank Anything You Can Do/Annie and Frank They Say It's Wonderful (reprise)/Annie, Frank and Company Finale Ultimo/.Company |
