Horrocks Gets Her Gun in Young Vic Musical???

It’s been 17 years since it was last seen in the West End but we hear that Irving Berlin’s toe-tapping 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun is riding back into town for a run at the Young Vic from this August.

The Off-West End theatre is not best known for musicals, though it has had hits in recent years with Langston Hughes’ Simply Heavenly and the South African take on The Magic Flute, both of which transferred to the West End, as well as its series of community operas. And this summer, Che Walker’s new musical comedy Been So Long opens in the theatre’s main space in June.

Set in Ohio, Annie Get Your Gun focuses on Annie Oakley, the loud-mouthed gunslinger, and Frank Butler, her sharp-shooting rival and love interest, who battle it out for a place in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Featuring the classic songs “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Anything You Can Do, Annie Get Your Gun” last ran in the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1992.

Our sources have informed us that Richard Jones, no stranger to the Young Vic, will direct, and Jane Horrocks, best known to musical fans for Little Voice on stage and screen, will play the title role. The pair worked together at the Young Vic last year on the revival of Brecht’s play The Good Soul of Szechuan. Horrocks is currently in rehearsals for the Royal Court revival of Wallace Shawn’s Aunt Dan and Lemon, which opens on 27 May (See News, 6 Nov 2008).