By JOHN FLEMING and BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published May 22, 2003
[Publicity photo]
The Florida Orchestra winds up the 2002-03 masterworks series as it began, with Pavel Kogan, above, on the podium.
The Florida Orchestra winds up the 2002-03 masterworks series as it began, with Pavel Kogan, above, on the podium. Kogan led the orchestra in the season's opening program last September. The finale has a Romeo and Juliet theme, with a suite from the Prokofiev ballet, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Tchaikovsky's popular overture-fantasy on Shakespeare's romantic tragedy. Concerts are at 8 p.m. Friday at Morsani Hall of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater. Tickets: $20-$42. (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286.
- JOHN FLEMING
Drawing a different bead on "Annie'
The Show Palace Dinner Theatre starts its summer season Friday with a new version of Annie Get Your Gun, one without the denigrating I'm An Indian, Too number but with a subplot that addresses the difficulties of romance between a white girl and a half-American Indian boy in the 1880s.
The main story is about sharpshooter Annie Oakley (Katie Kerwin, above), who falls for wild west show marksman Frank Butler (Brian Minyard). Annie is a better shot than Frank, but she soon realizes You Can't Get a Man with a Gun.
Show director Michael Ursua says this Annie Get Your Gun is "quicker and cleaner and goes a lot faster." But it retains Irving Berlin's best tunes: There's No Business Like Show Business, I Got the Sun in the Morning, Anything You Can Do and They Say It's Wonderful.
Ursua's sister Shanna and her husband, Chris Sell, choreographed the show. Both performed with the Broadway tour of Cats for more than four years. The last time the Ursua siblings directed and choreographed a show together was at Richey Suncoast Theatre when they were teenagers, more than a decade ago.
Annie Get Your Gun runs Friday through June 29 at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson. Shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, and 1:30 p.m. May 29 and June 7 and 28. Doors open two hours before each show for buffet and full cash bar. Dinner and show are $37.50; show only, $26.45. Ages 12 and younger, $19.95 and $14.95. Call (727) 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll-free elsewhere at 1-888-655-7469.
