In this slimmed-down version of Annie Get Your Gun, the mocking Indian caricatures are gone and it adds a mixed-race romance.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published May 16, 2003
It's hard to believe that the upbeat musical Annie Get Your Gun could offend someone. Set in the 1880s wild West, it's a sweet and innocuous tale of sharpshooter Annie Oakley and her swooning crush on the egotistical marksman Frank Butler.
So what could be offensive?
An Irving Berlin song, I'm An Indian Too, where the spunky Annie spoofs American Indians in a cigar-store-Indian sort of way. That may have been acceptable in 1946, when Ethel Merman's Annie debuted on Broadway, and even in Betty Hutton's 1950 movie.
Since then, such mocking caricatures have gone out of fashion, so the recent revival not only drops the number, it adds a mixed-race couple and treats their romance in a thoughtful way.
"We're doing the revival version," said Michael Ursua, director of the production opening May 23 at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre.
"Usually, I don't like these versions, but with Annie Get Your Gun, I like it a lot, lot better," he said. "It's quicker and cleaner and goes a lot faster. I'm not saying anything against the original, it's just that this show works better for this time."
Ursua is working with set designer Tom Hansen on a new, innovative way to show Annie's prowess with a gun when she joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
The Broadway show had Annie ride a motorcycle across the stage while shooting over her shoulder. Some ambitious productions have had her riding a horse as she shoots. Others have her dangling from a trapeze.
Hansen is working on a whole new concept for that scene, Ursua said, one that will surprise and delight the audience.
Ursua's making another important adjustment to the show.
"We're not having gunfire (blanks) during Annie and Frank's shooting matches either," Ursua said. Instead, the male members of the chorus will pound their guns on the floor to signify gunshots. "This is a lot less startling for the audience, especially in this smaller theater."
Annie is being played by Katie Kerwin (Gloria in Damn Yankees), a player often described as a "triple threat," the show biz term for someone who sings, dances and acts equally well. The original Annie Get Your Gun was created for Ethel Merman, who was not known for her dancing. The new version provides a big dance number for Ms. Kerwin's Annie during Sun in the Morning, Ursua said.
Ursua's sister and brother-in-law, Shanna and Chris Sell (directors/choreographers of Crazy for You), are doing the choreography for the show.
Frank Butler will be played by Show Palace newcomer, Brian Minyard, a Florida native who started his career as an engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. Minyard got into show business eight years ago when he tried out for a local musical as a way to divert the stress he was feeling over his father's terminal illness.
That show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, convinced him he had found his niche in life. His path was set when met his future wife, Melissa, during a production of Sweeney Todd at the Icehouse Theatre in Mount Dora. The couple married and moved to New York, where they both launched successful acting careers (Melissa is still performing on Broadway in Les Miserables.
Minyard has appeared on ABC's One Life to Live and Sheena, originated the roles of Aramis in a new musical version of The Three Musketeers and Herbert in Pip and, in 2002, made his Broadway debut covering for Tom Wopat as Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun. It was a role he had performed earlier at the Carousel Theater in Akron, Ohio.
The 23-member cast also has Andi Sperduti (Connie in Love, Sex and the I.R.S.) as Mrs. Schuyler Adams; Ian Rhodes as the half-Irish/half-Indian Tommy Keeler; Rebecca Gibel as Tommy's girlfriend Winnie Tate; Bobb James (Herbie in Gypsy) as Buffalo Bill Cody; Erik Michelsen as Chief Sitting Bull; Joe Camper (Marcus Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) as Pawnee Bill; Laura Lynn Tapper (Julie Jordan in Carousel) as Mrs. Potter-Porter; and Susan Haldeman (Domina in Funny/Forum) as Dolly Tate, Frank's assistant. Ursua will play Charlie Davenport.
Midway through rehearsals, Ursua was delighted with both his cast and the show.
"Everything is going so, so well," he said. "I really feel like we're doing justice to this show."
At a glance
WHAT: Annie Get Your Gun
WHERE: Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson
WHEN: May 23-June 29. Shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, and at 1:30 p.m. May 29 and June 7 and 28. Doors open two hours before each show for buffet and full cash bar.
TICKETS: Dinner and show, $37.50; show only, $26.45. Ages 12 and younger, $19.95 and $14.95. Call 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll free elsewhere at 1-888-655-7469.
