Nearly 70 years have passed since Ethel Merman belted out the timeless words, “There’s no business like show business!”
The State College Community Theatre agrees that there’s no other business like the theater.
And, on Thursday, Feb. 12, its production of “Annie Get Your Gun” will open at the State Theatre.
Jonathan Hetler directs the show, with Philip J. Vonada serving as stage manager. The cast of 31 includes newcomers, as well as veteran SCCT performers.
“This cast will make this show memorable,” Vonada says, “because they’re telling the story in the frame of a Wild West show.”
The biggest box office triumph of Irving Berlin’s career, “Annie Get Your Gun” opened in 1946. It underwent a slight reworking in 1999 for another Broadway run. The original contained some details considered racially offensive and the revised libretto cleans things up a bit. But, the basic show remains the same.
In the plot, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, played by Rachael Gigar, supports her younger siblings by selling wild game that she shoots. “No buckshot in that bird,” she brags.
“Annie’s very outspoken,” Gigar observes, “she has total confidence in her abilities.”
Buffalo Bill Cody, portrayed by Eric Ziegler, discovers Annie and her uncanny talent. He immediately hires her for his Wild West Show. But his show already has a shooting star, and sparks fly when Annie meets Frank Butler, played by Matt Greer. Rivalry meets romance and the show must go on. Annie wants the romantic attachment with Frank, but she won’t hide her ability to outshoot him.
“You can’t get a man with a gun,” she sings, in one of the many hit tunes from this show.
Annie and Frank butt heads over more than one issue. She comes from a world where she had to fend for herself and her family. Frank wants a pampered princess. He definitely doesn’t like the idea of a woman upstaging him.
“The girl that I marry will have to be, as soft and as pink as a nursery,” he sings.
Eventually, after plenty of arguing, posturing, singing, dancing and romancing, the two find a way to live happily ever after.
“She’s a star,” Gigar says of the character Annie, “but at the same time, she loves Frank and wants him in her life.”
In the end, Annie gets the man and the gun.
For more information or to buy tickets visit The State Theatre website.
