Reports reaching these shores have spoken none too favourably of Peter Stone’s book revisions of Annie get your Gun, wherein the story of the love and rivalry between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler takes place now within Buffalo Bill’s Wild West touring show. A recce down the titles reveals that in deference to political correctness all those numbers with any reference to Indians have been dropped along with Frank’s opening song ‘I’m a bad bad man’. Annie’s songs are however all intact, as are the two duets of the young suitors Tommy and Winnie that were cut in the last two London productions.
In the title-role Bernadette Peters gives an attractive performance, her voice sweeter than the ‘burnished rock’ style of her youth. ‘Moonshine Lullaby’, her song to illicit liquor, suits her well and the two duets, ‘Anything you can do’ and ‘An old-fashioned wedding’ with Tom Wopat, come off well – but she is the only vocal personality in a score that cries out for a bit of showman and showgirl pizzazz. Irving Berlin might have had a thing or two to say about that, as he no doubt would of some of the intrusive orchestration and tempos that have been adopted for no apparent reason.
Excellent recording and a glossy booklet are hardly compensation for what might have been, but then Angel’s UK counterpart EMI provide their own answer with the Kim Criswell/Thomas Hampson recording conducted by John McGlinn which captures the essence of the show that proclaims ‘there’s no business like show business’.'