The West just got wilder

Friday, March 10, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Gary Smith Annie Oakley, robustly portrayed by Kristen Page-Kirby, bemoans the fact that as good a shot as she is, she still ‘‘Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” in the Port Tobacco Production of ‘‘Annie Get Your Gun,” which opens tonight at the theater in La Plata. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story   If you go ... The Port Tobacco Players’ production of ‘‘Annie Get Your Gun” will be performed weekends through April 2 at the theater in La Plata. Performances will take place at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 3 p.m Sundays. Tickets are $15, $12 for students and seniors. The theater is at 508 Charles St. Call 301-932-6819.

First, there are the cowboys and cowgirls gathering in front of an old Western-like hotel. They mill about and it’s not long before old Charlie, played by good ole boy David Guthrie, accompanied by snippy Dolly Tate, elegantly portrayed by Leslie Newkirk, decides that this is the place to set up a shooting match between Buffalo Bill Cody’s sharpshooter and the local marksman.

It turns out, however, that the local marksman ... is a woman. Rough livin’, tough talkin’ Annie Oakley, portrayed by the rambunctious Kristen Page-Kirby, and her siblings, are visiting from Darke County, Ohio, and have been directed to the hotel to sell wild fowl cleanly shot by Annie.

Hotelkeeper Foster Wilson, played by the blustery David Bayles, wants nothing to do with the Wild West show, having already had more than enough of show folk antics, thanks to the performers in the Pawnee Bill show, Buffalo Bill’s competitor.

Despite demanding that the troupe’s gear, luggage and company remove themselves from his porch, Wilson is beset by the feminine wiles of Dolly — which fail — and the promises of fame and fortune — made by Charlie and sharpshooter Frank Butler, played with dash by John W. Kirby — which also fail.

After shooting a bird off Dolly’s glamorous hat — much to Dolly’s chagrin and the ruination of a perfectly fashionable bonnet — Annie introduces herself to Wilson and offers to sell him her birds, as long as he pays her ‘‘two nickels and a dime” for each one.

When Wilson learns that it was Annie who shot the birds, he gets an idea and asks her if she’d like to compete in a shooting contest. Knowing she’s the best shot around, she agrees.

It’s not long before she meets the competition — an occasion which just about stops her heart with feminine palpitations.

She doesn’t know that Butler is the man against whom she will be shooting. She just knows that he’s gorgeous to look at and she’s ... well, she’s not quite familiar with how to handle the male animal in that womanly way.

It’s here that the musical’s score becomes truly familiar. This was one of Irving Berlin’s best creations and brought boisterous Ethel Merman to the top of the Broadway list of great performers.

The songs are among the most popular Broadway hits: ‘‘You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” ‘‘They Say It’s Wonderful,” ‘‘I Got the Sun in the Morning” and perhaps two of the best-known — ‘‘There’s No Business Like Show Business” and ‘‘Anything You Can Do.”

Accompanying the cast and chorus is the growing PTP orchestra. Working from a pit three times the size of what they had before the extensive renovations, it is already shrinking, according to pianist Cheryl M. Reckeweg.

The renovations also give set designer John Merritt plenty of room into which he can move the various pieces needed to set the scenes in Cincinnati, on the road and in New York City.

The costumes are glamorous for the ladies, elegant for the gentlemen, colorful for the cowboys and cowgirls and really quite good for the actors portraying Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, dignifiedly portrayed by John Van Blarcom, and his tribesmen.

The chief, quite taken by Annie’s skills, adopts her as his daughter and becomes the young lady’s advisor and guide through the murky waters of love and life.

While this show may seem like something out of a penny novel, the real Annie Oakley, born Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee, and Butler settled down and lived out their days at — of all places — the Eastern Shore, Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Kind of brings the Old West close to home.

About the only things missing are the horses and a runaway stage coach, and if Merritt, producer Terry Smith and director Mike Gahan could figure out how to work them into the theater without tearing the place up, they’d be in the show, too.

At least one PTP production each year is a musical and definitely a family affair. In this case, the family affair includes the cast, chorus, crew and orchestra.

One reason the interaction between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler is so good is that they’re married in real life. And they’re not the only ones. The splendid playbill has an extensive list of the family ties that bind this particular production together,

But aside from the participants, it’s a family production good for all ages — as long as cowboys running up the aisles, Indians running down the aisles, gun shots and hootin’ and hollerin’ don’t bother ya none!

Rated G — GGIADGSFTWSM: Golly Gee, It’s A Durn Good Show Fer The Whole Shootin’ Match!