Music And Songs From Annie Get Your Gun

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Jay Records' series of studio cast albums of vintage musicals attempts to overcome the space limitations of the old LPs by presenting newly recorded versions of the original "complete" scores that couldn't fit onto the formats of the past. The caveat with regard to Annie Get Your Gun is that, no doubt bowing to the preferences of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (which produced the show) and the Irving Berlin Estate, Jay has opted for what is called the "Lincoln Center Edition" of the show (i.e., the revised version presented at Lincoln Center in 1966), rather than the 1946 original. This means that the secondary leads have been eliminated (though their songs, "I'll Share It With You" and "How Do You Love, I Hope?," are tacked on as bonus tracks at the end), and "An Old Fashioned Wedding," which Berlin wrote for the 1966 revival, is included. But Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations were used in both 1946 and 1966, and they are here, too. Added in is enough dialogue (with underscoring) to give a sense of the plot, dance music such as "Wild West Ballet," and numerous reprises of the familiar songs, making this the longest version of Annie Get Your Gun on record. None of that would matter, of course, if the cast wasn't up to snuff, but it is. No one is ever likely to best Ethel Merman, who portrayed Annie Oakley in 1946 and again in 1966, but Broadway veteran Judy Kaye, while laying on the bumpkin accent a little thick, is funny, vulnerable, and able to handle the songs that were written for Merman's belting voice well. Barry Bostwick is another Broadway veteran, and he is reliably romantic and pompous as love interest Frank Butler. The result is an excellent rendition of a classic show.