"Annie Get Your Gun" Really Good

'Annie Get Your Gun' really good

REVIEW

BY ROGER LELIEVRE

The Ann Arbor News

Darned if Ann Arbor’s Burns Park players haven’t gone and done it again. Its production of Irving Berlin’s musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” which opened Friday night, is a real charmer, continuing this neighborhood group’s long tradition of excellence.

From the razzle-dazzle opener, “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” to the show-stopping “Anything You Can Do” late in the second act, everything about this “Annie” is a winner - the voices, the acting, the colorful costumes, the choreography, the detailed sets and the tuneful orchestra, led by Eric Lofstrom.

I’m not saying all that just to be nice: The show really is good.

The all-singing, all-dancing musical follows the story of riflewoman Annie Oakley (Eva Rosenwald) as she’s persuaded to join Buffalo Bill’s traveling Wild West Show. Annie quickly falls in love with its main attraction, the dashing Frank Butler (Jeffrey Post), but when she eclipses Frank as the show's headliner, Frank runs off, leaving Annie heartbroken. Will this pair of polar opposites ever get together? Even though I knew the answer, the production kept me on the edge of my seat anyway.

I’ve seen professional versions of this show, and I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more perfect Annie than Rosenwald. Not only does she have a superb voice (especially excellent in her signature numbers ‘You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” and “I Got the Sun in the Morning”) she’s got Oakley’s “aww shucks” persona down pat. She nails the part with bravado and a wide-eyed innocence that never seems contrived. Playing opposite, Post navigates his role perfectly, a swaggering “swollen headed stiff” who’s sensitive enough to know love when he sees it, even if he wants it on his own terms. Sparks fly when he and Rosenwald share the stage.

Young lovers Tommy (Neal Kelley) and Winnie (Hannah Pearlman), brassy-voiced Dolly (Dawn Korman) and Bob Galardi, who somehow manages to look exactly as I think Buffalo Bill should look, also turn in note-perfect performances.

Every year I see the Burns Parkers’ annual show and marvel at how an all-volunteer community group can stage such an amazingly professional production with a cast made up of neighborhood residents. Even more amazing is they do it with a huge company (170 this year) that includes just about every child who attends Burns Park Elementary. At some points the kids - so darned cute - threatened to upstage the adults, especially during “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly.”

Earlier I mentioned the choreography, courtesy of University of Michigan musical theater student Mary Michael Patterson. Successfully teaching some of the youngest ones those dance steps must have been a real challenge. Credit the fine costumes to Debbie Bourque; director Courtney Burkett kept the show moving right along.

There’s so much joy on the stage, it’s absolutely impossible not to like this production. Check it out, and bring the kids. “Gun” is family fun.

The Burns Park Players' "Annie Get Your Gun" continues in the Tappan Middle School Auditorium, 2251 E. Stadium Blvd., Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. Tickets are available ($15-$30) at Morgan and York Market, 1928 Packard, or at the door one hour before the show.