Players open ‘Annie Get Your Gun’

Published 2:01 pm Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Milledgeville Players opened their fall production, “Annie Get Your Gun” Thursday night at Russell Auditorium. The cast of nearly 40 local thespians took the historic stage to extol the appeal of show business set before the backdrop of romance, rivalry and a traveling Wild West show.

Randy Newton is a cast member and has appeared in past shows such as “Fiddler on the Roof” and said the show would be lots of fun for the audience.

“The most important part of the show is the audience,” Newton said.

Players member Tom Toney said audience members would almost immediately recognize songs from the musical.

“This is one of those plays that people know from name but often do not know the songs that came from it,” Toney said. And as you sit and watch it and hear the tunes you go, ‘oh I didn’t know THAT song came from Annie Get Your Gun.’ It’s actually loaded with very familiar tunes, five of which were top 10 hits back when the play first ran in 1946 — the only play ever to yield that many top 10 hits.”

Since auditions in late June, the Players have been rehearsing for the production. “Annie Get Your Gun” is the latest in a long string of musical productions from the local company. The Players have performed “The Pajama Game,” “Guys and Dolls” and “South Pacific” in past years. The group has also performed a number of plays and hosted murder mystery dinners.

Toney said the show is a great example of what community theater is all about.

“Leanne Branch, the director, just joined up with the Milledgeville Players a little over a year ago,” Toney said. “But she has jumped right into being an active member. I’ve been president of the Milledgeville Players for three years now, and I am really proud of the work we have done and the folks that have made everything possible. As folks come to our plays and murder mystery dinners, they should always keep in mind that the people doing this do it because they love it. We are not paid. This is community theater. Most of us have full-time jobs and other typical day-to-day responsibilities.”

“Annie Get Your Gun” is based on a partly fictionalized segment of the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame in the late 1800s as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

The Irving Berlin musical was written based on a book by siblings Herbert and Dorothy Fields. The original cast included Ethel Merman and a revival featured Merman along with Jerry Orbach. In 1999, the show was revived again and featured Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat.

Following the opening night performance, the show will be presented Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights beginning at 8 p.m. A matinee performance will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 and are available at the door.

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