Annie Get Your Gun

Synopsis

This comedy musical tells the romantic story of Annie Oakley, a shooting female hillbilly who becomes the star attraction of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 18 October 2009

There’s nothing not to like about Richard Jones’ revival of Annie Get Your Gun which solves the book’s problems by being cheeky about them and delivers Irving Berlin’s wonderful score with wit, brio and a sly, musicianly expertise.

Favouring a great wide stage, as he did in last year’s collaboration with Jane Horrocks, Brecht’s The Good Soul of Sezchuan, Jones spreads the action of the Wild West travelling show high, wide and handsome in Ultz’s design, with gorgeously minimal choreography by Philippe Giraudeau, as if in sarcastic one-dimensional retort to a filmed travelogue of forest landscapes and grizzly bears during the overture.

Two children hold hands through that scenic prologue, and Horrocks’ impish, slightly crazed little Annie Oakley – her childish knees are both knocked and grimy – and Julian Ovenden’s likeable Frank Butler work out their romance against a background of professional rivalry.

Both are e...

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Latest User Review

Paul Arthur - 20 December 2009:

Oh come on! Did you really expect lush strings and beautiful orchestrations at the Young Vic?! On Tuesday I sat through 'Oliver!' at Drury Lane; a ponderous, leaden supertanker of a production, weighed down by its own scale. By contrast, AGYG is light, inventive and most-of-all, great fun. It's a tribute to all concerned that never once did Betty Hutton, Howard Keel or (thank God) Ethel Merman come to mind. Unlike Mr Hewitt et al, I don't go to the fringe to come out whistling the sets. If you want juggernaut theatre, stick with Lloyd Webber and Mackintosh. ...

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