Two months less two days short of 65 years after “Annie Get Your Gun” opened at New York’s Imperial Theatre, with Ethel Merman in the title role and Ray Middleton as Frank Butler, and 60 years and 11 days after the movie, starring Betty Hutton and Howard Keel won an Oscar for Best Music Score, Irving Berlin’s world-famous musical opened at Elk Point Arts and Leisure Centre for a six-night dinner theatre run.
The Elk Point Community Choir and Friends version of the timeless classic stars Caitlin Tazzer as Annie Oakley, a simple country girl who grew up “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” and can shoot the fuzz off a peach or the bird off Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show promoter Dolly Tate’s (Dixie Coleman’s) hat with equal ease.
That skill catches the attention of Buffalo Bill (Udo Mueller), his show manager Charlie Davenport (Shaun Sheplawy) and even hard-hearted hotel owner Foster Wilson (Roger Cox), but doesn’t endear her to Buffalo Bill’s star sharpshooter Frank Butler (Ian Brousseau), who says, “The girl that I marry… will have to be… as soft and sweet as a nursery…” He doesn’t take her seriously as a shootout rival, either, although she swears, “I don’t shoot like a girl – I shoot like a man.”
Annie’s siblings, Mickayla Chamberland, Kamryn Coleman and Bryce Osinchuk, shined up her guns, and Annie’s quick trigger finger didn’t fail her. She won the competition, but had to agree, “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun.”
She didn’t get the man, but her prowess got her an invitation from Charlie and Buffalo Bill to join the show, where she soon found out, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” After Annie and her siblings took their first train ride with the show troupe, a journey during which Chief Sitting Bull’s (Steven Booth) tribe members, Mrs. Little Horse (Millie Orr) and Mrs. Black Tooth (Pat Lotsberg) made themselves very much at home in Miss Dolly’s private rail car, they arrived in Minneapolis to find out a rival wild west show, run by Pawnee Bill (Shilo Salzmann) was opening right across the river in St. Paul.
Annie learned a new act, doing shooting tricks from a motorcycle, which made her a star, and prompted the Chief to adopt her into the Sioux tribe. Her success sent Frank into a major pout that made him leave the show and offer his talents to Pawnee Bill.
Buffalo Bill’s entourage toured Europe, but even 26 command performances couldn’t keep up with the bills for 62,000 chocolate éclairs, and even though Annie came back with a chest full of medals, they found themselves heading back into New York on a cattle boat.
Pawnee Bill was packing them in to Madison Square Gardens and wanted to welcome them home with a big party, which Buffalo Bill, the Chief and Charlie thought might be a good time to approach him about combining the shows. All the finest people were there, including John Gottenbos, Martin Dion, Dorothy Tazzer, Lawrence Pidluzny, Velma Hudson, Mabel Gottenbos, Irene Krochmal, Brianna White and Doris Osinchuk, but Pawnee Bill’s show wasn’t making any more money than their rivals. Not only that, but Frank still preferred that his ladies “wear satins and laces and smell of cologne,” and while Annie might fit that criteria on a good day, she still vowed that while she might love and honour, she was sure as shootin’ “not going to obey.” She also wasn’t ready to concede that Frank is the better shooter, because “I got all these medals that say you ain’t.” There’s no way around it – she and the hotshot were just going to have to shoot it out to settle the issue once and for all.
Dolly wasn’t about to take any chances with the outcome, and set out to do a little subtle sabotaging of Annie’s treasured rifle. Charlie and Sitting Bull caught her in the act and Sitting Bull offered to scalp her, but after thinking about it, they decided this might be the only way for Annie and Frank to realize that there’s more to life than competition.
Unable to hit the broad side of a barn door, Annie finally conceded that Frank just might be the better marksman, and gave him her medals, which he in turn gave to Buffalo Bill to finance the continuation of the wild-west show, where the two lovebirds could both perform.
As the entire cast said, as Saturday night’s curtain fell on another season of dinner theatre, there really is “No Business Like Show Business.”
