'ANNIE': AIMING TO PLEASE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

Apparently, you can get a man with a gun. An audience full of 'em even. Women, too. Even 55 years after Ethel Merman put her signature on the role of Annie Oakley as definitively as the real Oakley could put a slug through a clay pigeon.

Annie's still shooting, and audiences are still going bananas. The Tony Award-winning revival of Irving Berlin's ``Annie Get Your Gun'' arrives for an eight-performance engagement starting today at the Wilshire Theatre. While the tour may then continue, L.A. is the final stop for Marilu Henner, who has been on the road since July, and for co-star Tom Wopat, whose involvement dates back to the show's 1999 Broadway opening.

Filling Annie's buckskins and rifles has been a delight for Henner, who remembered the show from when she was 9 years old.

``My sister was playing the part in college, and I was this little kid with a script,'' said Henner, the former star of the TV shows ``Taxi'' and ``Evening Shade.'' ``I thought, 'Oh, she gets to be a tomboy and then dress up.' ''

Wopat, who plays Annie's marksman rival/love interest Frank Butler, knows a little something about the play as well. He played the same role in a summer stock production in Michigan in the 1970s.

``It's a part I was born to play,'' says the singer and former ``Dukes of Hazzard'' star, ``He's a cowboy, and he's a little arrogant, but he has his vulnerable moments.''

Though Berlin's version plays extremely fast and loose with historical accuracy, the mystique surrounding the sharpshooting Annie Oakley - born Phoebe Anne Mosey - is alive and well in America. Especially in the Midwest, where, during the tour, Henner attended a ceremony that saw a beer named after Oakley: Annie's Ale.

Henner believes that, even now, Oakley's appeal is easily understood. The lady was a pioneer.

``I keep saying she hit the glass ceiling and shot it out,'' said Henner, 48. ``Her shooting records would hold up to this day. She was shooting cigarettes out of people's mouths, looking in a mirror and shooting backwards. She did things people had never done before, and she was female.''

The Oakley created by Berlin and book writers Herbert and Dorothy Fields is a backwoods gal with deadly aim and a voice to match who sets her sights on famed sharpshooter Frank Butler. She gets the best of Berlin's songs as ``Moonshine Lullaby,'' ``I Got Lost in His Arms'' and ``You Can't Get a Man With a Gun.'' Oh, and you may remember a little ditty called, ``There's No Business Like Show Business.''

``You never have to say, 'Is there anything hummable?' '' said Henner.

Merman originated the role in 1946 and played it again in a 1966 revival. Mary Martin took Annie's rifles and buckskins for the 1947 national tour. Other Annies of note: Debbie Reynolds, Martha Raye, Lucie Arnaz and Ginger Rogers. Betty Hutton stepped in to do the 1950 film after the originally tabbed Annie, Judy Garland, suffered a nervous breakdown.

The current revival - with a new book by Peter Stone and directed by Graciela Daniele - opened in March 1999 at the Marquis Theatre, where it's still playing. Aimed at toning down some of the sexism and racial stereotyping (gone, for instance, is the patter song ``I'm an Indian, Too''), the new production won Tony awards for best musical revival and best actress in a musical for star Bernadette Peters. Two Annies later, the show has a new following and ecstatic reviews for the newest Annie, country star Reba McEntire.

``Obviously, it's a part that fits on a number of people,'' says Wopat, who estimates he has sung ``The Girl That I Marry'' to half a dozen different Annies. ``Marilu plays the part as a real tomboy. She stays real focused in the part. Bernadette was primarily a songstress. I've never heard anybody sing the role better. Her whole approach was a little less edgy than what Marilu is doing.''

Henner, who toured with the national company of ``Grease,'' said she was pleased to hit the road once again, especially since she could take her two sons, ages 6 and 5, along with her. Their father, director Robert Lieberman, joins the family at strategic points along the way.

``My sons get tutored on the road, and every city shows them a great field trip,'' said Henner. ``They went to the Denver Mint, we swam with dolphins and saw (Gov.) Jesse Ventura's mansion.''

Life on the road has meant that the busy Henner has conducted the online health support group she teaches from, well, from everywhere. The author of books on health and child rearing, she expects to put the finishing touches on ``Healthy Kids: From Conception to College'' once she gets home.

Wopat hasn't spent the past several months being ``Annie'' exclusive either. Strategic breaks from the tour have enabled him to do some small club gigs to promote his new jazz CD, ``The Still of the Night,'' for Angel records. The idea for the project was hatched when Wopat was recording the Grammy award-winning ``Annie'' soundtrack with Peters and the original company.

Recognized primarily as a country crooner, Wopat jumped at the opportunity to flex a different set of musical muscles.

``They asked me if I wanted to do an album of standards, a jazz vocal album, and I said, 'Well, sure.' Nobody had ever asked me to do that before,'' said Wopat who keeps residences in Nashville, New Jersey and L.A. ``It is a style I hadn't put a lot of research into, but once we started picking tunes, got into the studio and gave it a little contemporary approach, we came up with something.''

``ANNIE GET YOUR GUN''

Where: Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through March 4.

Tickets: $42 to $67. Call [phone].

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SHARP SHOOTERS

For Marilu Henner and Tom Wopat, doing `Annie Get Your Gun' has been quite a blast

(2 -- 3) Marilu Henner and Tom Wopat star in the Los Angeles production of ``Annie Get Your Gun,'' now at the Wilshire Theatre.