SLT's 'Annie Get Your Gun' hits its target

On May 16, 1946, Broadway witnessed the opening of “Annie Get Your Gun.” The musical went on for 1,146 more performances before closing its original run. The British production debuted just a month later and ran even longer. The show has since experienced several revivals on major stages, the most recent being the 1999 Broadway production starring Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat.

No matter who has played Annie Oakley – whose life the musical is loosely based

on – the undeniable, one and only original is Ethel Merman.

Irving Berlin wrote the music and lyrics with Merman in mind for the part. The work has some of the most widely heard popular songs of the 20th century, including the opening number, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

Others show numbers have become standards as well: “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” “I Got the Sun in the Morning” and “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”

Annie Oakley was born in the summer of 1860 and her prowess with a gun is now well-documented history. “Annie Get Your Gun” takes a lot of dramatic license with the story, most notably the facts surrounding her relationship with Frank Butler, another sharpshooter who eventually became her husband. They traveled extensively with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Shows. The Wild West Show serves as the milieu for the musical.

Presenting a piece that is so widely known and features so many musical numbers is no small feat, but Springfield Little Theatre has been taking on some big challenges this season.

A trio helms this production. Stage and dramatic direction is by Joe Bowman,

choreography is by Trishna Estes and musical direction is provided by Janice Fulbright, crossing over to SLT from her post as executive director of the Springfield Regional Opera.

In the lead role of Annie is Sarah Rose Nottingham, who provides a lot of the necessary spunk to play a character this legendary. Nottingham is a competent singer and is required to stretch her limits in “Annie Get Your Gun.”

Berlin’s songs run the gamut from tender love ballads to the intricate word-delivery play of “Anything You Can Do,” which requires the singers to sing loud, soft, fast, slow, tender and cheeky. Then Annie has to hold what seems to be an impossibly long note. The song got the biggest response of the production.

The number that was hardest for Nottingham and the kids playing her siblings was “Moonshine Lullaby.” It features a rather cumbersome melody.

SLT newcomer Grant Mahnken plays the male lead of Frank Butler. The chemistry between Mahnken and Nottingham works well. The tender moments, the arguments, the egos and the stubbornness add up to scenes between a believable couple.

There is a bit of bawdiness in “Annie Get Your Gun,” but the subtleties will be over the heads of the younger viewers who will be more interested in the sharp shooting and show business.

“Annie Get Your Gun” – which runs through May 15 – is another good offering of family entertainment.

For show times and ticket information, call (417) 869-1334 or visit www.spring

fieldlittletheatre.org.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.