After plans were announced for the Broadway revival of “Annie Get Your Gun” to hit the road, those responsible for booking the show in cities all across the country were interested in hearing only one name in the leading role — Bernadette Peters.
It looked for a while like the show’s original star would agree to tour, but Peters ultimately demurred. In her stead, savvy producers Fran and Barry Weissler cast ex-Chicagoan Marilu Henner, the author and former star of “Taxi” who greatly surprised Broadway honchos a couple of years ago with her terrific work in the musical “Chicago.” And Henner’s performances in “Annie” on the road have been so well-received that presenters have quickly forgotten their initial trepidation.
Chicago audiences will get a look at this revisionist production of the Irving Berlin musical when Annie Oakley and Frank Butler pitch their tent at the Shubert Theatre for a two-week run beginning Wednesday.
Based on a look at the touring version of this show when it began in Dallas in early August, both Henner and Rex Reed (who plays rival-sharpshooter Butler) are offering more naturalistic characterizations than their predecessors in the roles. Whereas the ever-sardonic Peters winked copiously at her fans in the audience, Henner is unafraid to turn Annie Oakley into a genuine lout.
“I have this scrappy tomboy side,” Henner said recently. “If I didn’t have so many quick changes, I’d be making myself even dirtier. I see this character as really ratty and scrappy.”
Chatting over the phone from her California home, she had briefly paused in recounting numerous funny stories about her happy childhood and warm family in Chicago. “I really wanted to do this role,” she said. “And I like surprising people.”
Since the tour was another fresh look at the show, Henner preferred the idea of creating her own pistol packin’ gal, rather than taking over from Peters on Broadway.
“The New York company was designed around someone who is 5 feet 2 inches tall,” Henner said (referring to Peters). “And I am physically in people’s faces.”
The stature of Annie is not the only change. If you also saw this production in New York, you’ll notice here next week that director Jeff Calhoun has trimmed the show considerably for the road. Two numbers, several sections of dialogue and about 15 minutes of running time have all disappeared (as has a good portion of the original set).
But even if Chicago audiences are seeing a simplified physical production, the changes in the material have greatly improved the show. In fact, the national press representative for “Annie Get Your Gun” says that ideas from this road production have recently been inserted into the currently running Broadway version.
Whether in New York or on the road, the likable Henner seems to be greatly enjoying her sudden popularity in musical theater, even if she admits that the Fosse stylings of “Chicago” were a literal stretch.
“I had not put my legs up over my head in five years except in childbirth,” Henner said (she has two children). “But I turned out not to be as rusty as I thought.”
Right. And after those gymnastics, simultaneously sharpshootin’ and warblin’ is just doin’ what comes natur’lly.
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So after much rumor we have learned this week that Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick will be lighting up the downtown Chicago theater district for almost the entire month of February. As officially announced Friday, Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” (based on his 1968 movie) will try out at the Cadillac Palace before opening on Broadway in April. It’s a splendid addition to the “Broadway in Chicago” slate.
A back-stage musical, the satirical movie followed a New York producer (Zero Mostel) who is determined to stage the worst show of all time as part of a scheme to bilk investors in the show. Its most memorable moment is the “Springtime for Hitler” production number, in which beer, pretzels, naked flesh, fake moustaches and terrible taste all co-mingle with hysterical results. Can’t wait.
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Speaking of flop Broadway musicals, the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook has announced plans to produce “Big: The Musical” in 2001. This was the ill-fated theatrical version of the much-loved film that starred Tom Hanks. Beginning with its catastrophic Detroit tryout, I saw “Big” in most of the stages of its development and can report that the current official version (which will be licensed to the Drury Lane) is far different from, and vastly superior to, the awful show that tanked on Broadway. Since composer Richard Maltby and lyricist David Shire finally got the thing right, this should be a pleasant family attraction, and, of course, it has never been seen in Chicago. It’s also the first new(ish) musical in ages at the ever-conservative Drury Lane.
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At the start of the “Tallulah” tour in frigid Minneapolis last week, Kathleen Turner had to endure a night from hell replete with a crying baby, a dead microphone and an insistent cell phone. By the weekend, she was looking very comfortable in the role, even though the producers had been giving her new script pages to learn almost every night. The Broadway-bound one-woman show arrives here in November.
