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Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by Herbert Fields, Dorothy Fields
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Show History
ANNIE GET YOUR GUN premiered on Broadway in 1946, with a veritable "dream team" of creators: producers Rodgers & Hammerstein, songwriter Irving Berlin, bookwriters Herbert & Dorothy
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Annie Oakley Biography
Phoebe Ann Mosey (often misspelled as Mozee or Moses) was born in a log cabin in Darke County, Ohio, in 1860. She fired her first shot at the age of 8
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The musical that celebrates "doin’ what comes natur’lly" began with an idea that was an absolute natural: Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley. Bulls eye.
The idea of doing a
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Barrett, Mary Eillin. Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994; (Paperback) Limelight Editions, 1996.
Bordman, Gerald. American Musical Theatre:
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Awards
1900 Donaldson Awards- 3 Awards including Best Score
Articles & Interviews
7/1/1999 Volume 6, Issue 3, Summer BULLS EYE! ANNIE GET YOUR GUN HITS BROADWAYShe blasted her way onto the Great White Way in 1946, and came back again twenty years later. Now, for the first time since, Irving Berlin and Herbert & Dorothy Fields' classic ANNIE GET YOUR GUN has returned to Broadway.
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10/1/2000 Volume 8, Issue 1, Fall BULL'S EYE! M-G-M '50 MOVIE OF ANNIE GET YOUR GUN FINALLY HITS THE HOME SCREENFifty years ago, the M-G-M movie version of Irving Berlin's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN opened to rave reviews and boffo business, and soon became one of the studio's highest-grossing musicals. In the decades that followed, however, this Hollywood epic took on the aura of a myth.
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1/1/1996 Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter DOIN' WHAT COMES NATUR'LLYFifty years ago this winter, a show business ""dream team"" was hard at work on what was to become one of the greatest musicals in Broadway's post-World War II golden era. ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, marking its 50th Anniversary in 1996, will be celebrated by both The R&H Theatre Library and the Irving Berlin Music Company throughout the year.
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Critic Quotes
"A musical for the ages, one of the Broadway theatre's enduring triumphs."
The New York Post, 1999
"What a wonderful musical Irving Berlin's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN is: the melodies just shake out of it in an endless cascade, and the simple story is unexpectedly involving. We care!"
The New York Post, 2001
"You can't get a man with a gun...but you can get a surefire audience pleaser by reviving Irving Berlin's best musical."
Houston Chronicle, 1992
"A rich, romantic story, a melodious score and brilliant lyrics."
New York Journal American, 1946
"The real star of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN-- in 1946, in 1999 and in 200 years-- is Berlin's music. Song after hum- it, whistle- it song."
Elyse Sommer, CurtainUp
"One of the musical theater's finest scores, by Irving Berlin, and a witty, often amusing book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields."
Cooper Robb, Theatermania
Facts & Figures
- May 16, 1946 Irving Berlin's musical ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, presented by Rodgers & Hammerstein and starring Ethel Merman, opens at the Imperial Theatre, New York, and runs for 1,147 performances.
Musical Numbers
There's No Business Like Show Business (Annie, Frank, Buffalo Bill and Charlie)
resources/Audios/42993_0485_08.mp3
There's No Business Like Show Business (Annie, Frank, Buffalo Bill and Charlie)
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 1. Overture (Annie, Frank, Buffalo Bill and Charlie)
2. Colonel Buffalo Bill (Charlie, Dolly and the Ensemble)
3. I'm A Bad, Bad Man (Frank and the Girls)
4. Doin' What Comes Natur'lly (Annie, the Kids and Wilson)
5. The Girl That I Marry (Frank)
6. You Can't Get A Man With a Gun (Annie)
7. There's No Business Like Show Business (Annie, Frank, Buffalo Bill and Charlie)
8. They Say It's Wonderful (Annie and Frank)
9. Moonshine Lullaby (Annie, Trio and the Kids)
 10. Wild West Pitch Dance (Annie, Trio and the Kids)
11. Reprise: Show Business (Annie, Trio and the Kids)
12. My Defenses AreDown (Frank and the Boys)
13. Indian Ceremonial (Wild Horse, Braves and Squaws)
14. I'm An Indian Too (Annie)
15. Tribal Dance (Annie)
16. Reprise: You Can't Get A Man With A Gun (Annie)
17. I Got Lost In His Arms (Annie and the Ensemble)
18. Reprise: Show Business (Annie and the Ensemble)
19. I Got The Sun In The Morning (Annie and the Company)
20. An Old Fashioned Wedding (Annie and Frank)
21. Reprise: The Girl That I Marry (Frank)
22. Anything You Can Do (Annie and Frank)
23. Reprise: Show Business (Annie and Frank)
24. Finale (They Say It's Wonderful) (The Company)
Discography
| 1. |
Annie Get Your Gun [1996 Studio Cast]
Label: Jay
Release date: January 1, 1996
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Y
Rental Materials
| Rehearsal Set (22 Books, 1 Logo CD) |
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20 Libretto/Vocal Books
| 1 Logo CD
| 2 PIANO VOCAL SCORE
| | | | Orchestration Package (20 Books) |
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1 FLUTE I-II (Both Flutes doubling Piccolo)
| 1 PIANO VOCAL SCORE
| 1 OBOE (Optional doubling English Horn)
| 1 CLARINET I-II (Clarinet II doubling Bass Clarinet)
| 1 Bassoon
| 1 HORN
| 1 TRUMPET I-II
| 1 TRUMPET III
| 1 TROMBONE I
| 1 TROMBONE II
| 1 TROMBONE III (Bass Trombone)
| 2 PERCUSSION I-II (see list below)
| 2 VIOLIN A-B, C-D (Divisi)
| 1 VIOLA (Divisi)
| 1 CELLO (Divisi)
| 1 Bass
| 1 HARP
| 1 GUITAR
| | | | Libretto/Vocal Books 10 pack |
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10 Libretto/Vocal Books
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Writer's Notes
1955, Ethel Merman, Who Could Ask For Anything MoreDorothy Fields first had the notion for ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. It was during the war, and Dorothy was at 21 for dinner one night with her husband. Sitting next to the Fieldses was a woman from the Traveler's Aid Bureau at the Pennsylvania Station. 'I had the cutest guy in the other night,' the [woman] remarked. 'He was a sharpshooter with medals from here to here, and he was tight as a tick. He'd been out to Coney Island and he'd won everything he could possibly win with a gun. Then he'd taken the train to the Pennsy Station and had walked in loaded.' Then for no reason at all, Dorothy had a flash: Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley. She and her brother, Herbie Fields, had a meeting with Dick Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein the next day to talk it over. It was decided that Jerry Kern would do the music and Herbert and Dorothy would do the book. What a combination! They had nothing on paper except an idea for my entrance (the entrance that was afterward used, where you hear a shot off stage and a bird falls off a woman's hat, and you know it's Annie Oakley who's just about to make her entrance). And they had the finish of the first act. They hadn't even discussed the story. They planned to stick pretty much to the line of Annie's real life. And the finish of the first act was where her beau, Frank Butler, leaves Annie and she gives the Indian Chief, Sitting Bull, Frank's letter to read to her because she's never learned to read. But before Dorothy and Herbie could start the second act, Jerry had a stroke and died. It was then that Dorothy, Herbie, Dick, and Oscar had a meeting, purpose of the meeting was to ask each other: 'Who could possibly take Jerry's place?' They kicked this question around for a long time. Finally Dick said, 'The one I think is right for this is Irving Berlin.' 'Why didn't you say so before?' Dorothy asked. 'Of course, he's the only person to do it.' He decided to do it. Then he sat down and in eighteen days he wrote ten of the best songs ever written by anybody. According to Dorothy, Irving was skeptical about taking on the job because he thought it was out of his line. It called for hillbilly songs, ballads, and fast songs as well as comedy songs and Irving wasn't sure he had that much variety. I don't have to tell anyone he proved that he had. The whole thing from the first rehearsal to the last performance was a joy.
Joshua Logan,
"While Irving was completing the score, we held progress meetings in [co-producer Oscar Hammerstein's] living room. At the last of these meetings we discussed Lucinda Ballard's costumes, Helen Tamiris' dances and Ray Middleton, who was to play Annie's true love, Frank Butler. Berlin was talking to a group off on the far side of the room, so I whispered to Oscar, "I'm worried. There ought to be another duet for Merman and Middleton."
"Another song?" whispered Oscar to me.
"Another song?" whispered Berlin, whose head appeared beside Oscar's.
Berlin can smell anything, anywhere, at a distance. He shouted across the room, "Listen, everybody, Josh wants another song. Josh, where do you see this song?"
"I don't know," I said, "except the leads should have a duet in the second act. They never sing together after ["They Say It's] Wonderful.'"
Irving said, "If they're not talking to each other in the second act, how can they sing together?"
"Could they have a quarrel song or a challenge song?" Dick Rodgers asked.
Irving jumped at the idea. "Challenge! Of course! Meeting over! I've got to go home and write a challenge song."
[My wife] Nedda and I took a taxi a few blocks, and when we got to our apartment the phone was ringing. It was Irving.
"Hello, Josh? How's this?" And he started singing:
Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you...
...And he carried right on through...
"That's perfect!" I shouted incredulously. ""When in hell did you write that?""
""In the taxicab. I had to, didn't I? We go into rehearsal Monday.""
Irving Berlin,
"Out of the blue [during the Boston tryout of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN] I got a little shaky about "Doin' What Comes Naturally". I often get that way about a song that is going fine, but I thought -- maybe I could improve this one. I worked like a dog. Oscar Hammerstein said, "It's wonderful as it stands; Why don't you leave it alone?" And there's nothing so tough as to give a performer a new lyric so that she had to remember part of the old and part of the new. Anyway, I picked a matinee and gave it to Ethel. Then I went back to her dressing room and there was that lyric, as she was making up, in front of her. And by God, she did it absolutely letter-perfect! The thing was, it didn't go. The audience reaction didn't compare. And we went back to the orginal. Once you change something, the audience tells you. Even if they applaud, they tell you."
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