'ANNIE' SCORES A BULL'S-EYE.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic A couple of years back, when he took his red pen to a once proud musical now greatly in need of revision, playwright Peter Stone followed a very smart instinct: ``Annie Get Your Gun'' - like its ragamuffin-to-shooting-star heroine - would clean up quite nicely. Bull's-eye! Cutting out the politically incorrect politically incorrect adj. Disregarding or unconcerned with political correctness. political incorrectness n. Adj. 1. references allows Irving Berlin's classic score - featuring favorites like ``Doin' What Comes Natur'lly,'' ``You Can't Get a Man With a Gun'' and ``I Got the Sun in the Morning'' - to shine through. The new ``Annie'' that arrived this week at the Wilshire Theatre as part of Broadway L.A.'s season is a touring version of the Broadway production that opened exactly two years ago. Touring musicals are hit-and-miss affairs with regional audiences often being forced to settle for star-free, watered-down versions of a Broadway hit. With this show, the signs were not encouraging, as the producers sliced two weeks off the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. engagement amid reports of poor advance ticket sales. Well, whoever decided this ``Annie Get Your Gun'' couldn't play L.A. sold it short. Featuring original Broadway cast member Tom Wopat Tom Wopat (born September 9, 1951 in Lodi, Wisconsin) is an American actor. He first achieved fame as Luke Duke in the long-running 1979 television series The Dukes of Hazzard. and the delightful Marilu Henner Marilu Henner (born April 6 1952) is an American actress and producer. Born Mary Lucy Denise Pudlowski[1] in Chicago, Illinois to a Greek mother and Polish father, Henner was raised on the northwest side of the city in the Logan Square in the title role, this ``Annie Get Your Gun'' is utterly charming. Smooth, comfortable and completely family-friendly, ``Annie'' deserves big crowds - and a longer stay. And Henner, the TV star who did a recent Broadway engagement of Bob Fosse's ``Chicago,'' shouldn't stray far from the stage. The title character is, of course, Annie Oakley An·nie Oak·ley n. A free ticket or pass. [After Annie Oakley (from the association of the punched ticket with one of her bullet-riddled targets).] Noun 1. , the sharp-shooting backwoods gal who joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, eclipsed her mentor, Frank Butler, and ended up marrying him. The musical's original book writers, Herbert and Dorothy Fields, threw historical accuracy out the window and focused on the love story between Annie (Henner) and Butler (Wopat). A sub-plot involving a romance between a half Indian knife thrower and his white assistant feels tacked on. The show could easily lose it. Even with Stone's revisions, Butler remains a thick-headed chauvinist chau·vin·ism n. 1. Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism. 2. Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind: "the chauvinism . . . who can't swallow being surpassed by a girl much less by the woman he fancies. Annie's stubborn, too, but she's also completely guileless, and she's giving Butler puppy eyes from the second she lays eyes on him. Director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun - who directed Deaf West's acclaimed production of ``Oliver!'' in NoHo - infuses ``Annie Get Your Gun'' with plenty of boot-stomping, skirt-swirling energy. The staging, like his choreography, is uncluttered and most of the production numbers are kept small scale on Tony Walton's brown and sepia- heavy sets. Anybody departing the Wilshire without the anthem ``There's No Business Like Show Business'' stuck in his head probably deserves a medal. Henner brings off Annie's transformation from urchin urchin - munchkin to belle with wonderful ease, and she's got a beautiful voice. She seems equally comfortable trading barbs barbs the primary, delicate filaments that are given off the shaft of a bird's contour feather. They project from the rachis and bear the barbules. with Wopat's Butler - whom she clearly adores - as singing ``Moonshine moonshine Toxicology Illicitly distilled whiskey. See Lead poisoning, Saturnine gout. Lullaby'' to her character's young siblings. Annie has been played tougher, but Henner spends most of the evening making the character an exposed nerve. We want to protect her, but we know she'll be just fine. Wopat's Butler has too much of the gentleman in him to over-play the character's swagger. In his hands, Butler is vulnerable not so much because someone can outshoot out·shoot tr.v. out·shot , out·shoot·ing, out·shoots To shoot better than (another): a pistol that easily outshoots others in its class; a basketball player who outshot all others on the team. him, but because he's falling in love for the first time. Wopat has a golden voice and an easy air. Of the supporting players, Vince Viverito gives Chief Sitting Bull almost a Sicilian air. And, consistent with the Indian-bashing cuts, ``S.B.'' as he's called, ends up being the shrewdest character on stage. This show is so clean that the saltiest moment is Annie comically mangling The term mangling may refer to:
Welcome back ``Annie.'' Pity you can't sit a spell longer. ``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 Sunday. Tickets: $42 to $67. Call (213) 365-3500. Our rating: Three and one half stars CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Marilu Henner is sharp-shooter Annie Oakley in ``Annie Get Your Gun.'' |
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