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A Sharpshooter ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ delves into the legendary Westerner By Laura Latzko
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any know Annie Oakley as the female sharpshooter from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, but there is more behind the legendary figure than just her shooting skills. The musical “Annie Get Your Gun” gives a deeper look into her life, especially her romantic relationship with Frank E. Butler. Created by Irving Berlin and Dorothy and Herbert Fields, the musical features wellknown songs such as “Anything You Can Do” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” In 1999, the show won multiple Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. The Starlight Community Theater is staging the updated version of the classic from February 28 to March 15. The updated version is more culturally sensitive and contemporary than the original. The show spotlights the budding romance between Butler, a womanizing star of Buffalo Bill’s traveling show, and Oakley, a young woman from modest beginnings who grew up in a cabin with Quaker parents. “I really want to focus on that love story and how that develops,” says director Christian Graca. Graca plans to show the complexities of their relationship through nonverbal gestures like glances and small touches. Staging the playing in an intimate theater helps with these subtle exchanges. “Those glances, those touches are lost in a larger venue, but in a more intimate venue, the audience will be able to get that quickly,” Graca says. Although the show is a fictionalized account of their relationship, it does touch on
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issues they faced, including Oakley’s untraditional role. To be together, Oakley and Butler need to move past feelings of pride and jealousy. A Starlight director since 2010, Graca wanted to show the strength of love between Butler and Oakley, who in real life were together for over 40 years and died within less than a month of each other. Although their relationship had a rocky start—with the two of them squaring off in a sharpshooting competition—they soon show they are willing to sacrifice to be together. In the show, a number of Native American characters have central storylines. The show especially delves into the relationship between Oakley and Sitting Bull, who teaches her how to read. A father figure to Oakley, Sitting Bull also serves as comic relief. Graca says it was important to cast an actor from a diverse background for Sitting Bull. Graca wanted to stay true to the real people represented in the show and to accurately portray their relationships. This is especially true in the representation of Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and Oakley—the three key members of the traveling show. “We really try to recreate history as classically and as realistically as possible. They were a family. They traveled all over. So, we are really focused on the relationship between Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill and Annie as well,” Graca says. Oakley is a strong female character in the show, but her hopes, dreams, simple beginnings, sense of pride and love for Butler make her character complicated. “She was the most humble out of everybody,” Graca says. “She was amazing at what she did. She traveled Europe. She was a woman ahead of her time, but she didn’t care about
that. She only cared about Frank.” Very few musicals have female-led characters. Graca likens “Annie Get Your Gun” to shows such as “Hello Dolly” and “Mary Poppins.” For the costumes and set, the company worked with local museums to obtain guns and other props, and Old Tucson inspired the set. Audiences can expect to see Arizona-themed elements in the backdrop. It was important to Graca to get the details correct, like dressing Oakley in dresses. “I’ve seen other productions of ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ where Annie is wearing slacks,” Graca says. “That would never have happened in the 1890s. She would be in long dresses. In every picture of her, she was wearing a dress or a skirt.” Graca has a long history with the production, as she played Jessie, Oakley’s little sister. When she was casting the show, she chose a variety of children for Oakley’s younger siblings and teens and adults for townspeople. With any Starlight production, mentoring is important, especially between older and younger actors. “It’s great when you have an intergenerational cast because they learn so much from their older castmates,” Graca says. The production team ranges from teens to those in their 70s. Within the company, young adults can take on key roles within stage management, lighting and sound design and choreography. “We are trying to teach the next generation about all of the different backstage aspects as well,” Graca says. “Not everybody wants to be in the limelight, but they want to be able to participate.”
Starlight Community Theater’s production of “Annie Get Your Gun”
Various times Friday, February 28, to Sunday, March 15 Starlight Community Theater, 1611 W. Whispering Wind Drive, Phoenix. $15 general admission starlightcommunitytheater.com