Rockwall Summer Musicals: Annie Get Your Gun

Music and Lyrics IRVING BERLIN, Book by HERBERT AND DORTHY FIELDS

Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank Butler.

The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York (1,147 performances) and London, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. Songs that became hits include “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly”, “You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun”, “They Say It’s Wonderful”, and “Anything You Can Do.”

In the story, Annie Oakley is a poor, but spirited and happy, county girl who lives by her native sharp-shooting skills which quickly makes her the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show where she meets and falls in love with expert rifleman, Frank Butler. Unfortunately, the tough, outspoken Annie is not Frank’s idea of what a wife should be and the two remain at competitive odds. Then Annie is initiated into a Indian tribe whose Chief, Sitting Bull, gives her advice on how she can win Frank. In the end, Annie lets Frank win in the sharpshooting contest. As a result, he falls in love with Annie and the two sharpshooters get married.