BWW Reviews: ANNIE GET YOUR GUN at Boiler Room Theatre

When you leave the theater humming a show's score, a broad smile across your face, joy in your heart and a spring in your step, you can rest assured that you've just seen a huge, spectacular hit. And that's exactly what Boiler Room Theatre gives you with its colorful and completely winning revival of Irving Berlin's classic Annie Get Your Gun!

Brought gloriously and vividly to life with effortless ease by director Jamey Green and his team of artistic collaborators, Annie Get Your Gun is the perfect chill-chasing harbinger of the new season, ushering in Spring with style, grace and good humor. At curtain, you'll find yourself shaking your head, wondering where the time went - so completely enthralled are you throughout the onstage proceedings. Kudos to Green (who pulls double-duty as music director - and conducts the superb onstage musical ensemble that includes some of Nashville theater's most accomplished players) and choreographer Pam Atha for their efforts, not the least of which is the perfect pairing of Corrie Miller and Matt Baugher as the musical's convincingly romantic leads.

Using the script from the show's 1999 Broadway revival that starred Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat (with the script updated by Peter Stone to better reflect turn-of-the-century American values instead of the mid-century mores found in the original book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields), the Boiler Room's revival retains Berlin's unparalleled score, featuring some of the most memorable songs ever written for the theater, including the show business anthem "There's No Business Like Show Business." Crafted by Stone as a show-within-a-show, setting the play's action in a big-top traveling circus, Annie Get Your Gun is enormously entertaining, telling a compelling, if romanticized, story of the very real Annie Oakley, her relationship with fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler (the man who became her husband in real life) and her rise to stardom during the heyday of the Wild West shows that delighted audiences around the world in the latter part of the 19^th century. Annie Get Your Gun might be an old-fashioned musical, yet at its heart, it remains contemporary and timeless, and the sheer enthusiasm with which this ensemble presents the story is infectious and thoroughly delightful.

Corrie Miller, cast as the historical character's fictionalized doppelganger, is sheer perfection - playing the sharp-shooting, quick-witted Annie Oakley with an ideal blending of confidence and vulnerability. Miller assumes complete control of the Boiler Room stage from her first moments in the spotlight, commanding the audience's complete and rapt attention throughout the more than two-and-a-half hours of nonstop entertainment.

Musically, she delivers Berlin's best songs with an easy grace, infusing each of them with her trademark wit and presenting them with all the colorful shading of her gorgeous voice. Whether Miller is singing "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" with the young actors playing her siblings, lamenting Annie's shortcomings in "You Can't Get A Man With A Gun" (particularly during the heart-tugging final scene of Act One), claiming the spotlight with her torchy take on "I Got Lost In His Arms," leading the entire ensemble in Act Two's "I Got the Sun in the Morning" and the lovely and lyrical "Moonshine Lullaby" (backed by the dulcet vocals of the so-called "Cowboy Trio"), she presents Berlin's songs with obvious respect for the material, without being slavish to convention.

Matt Baugher's beautiful voice is the first thing you hear in this production, as the lights come up to show Frank Butler sitting atop a crate, singing the first notes of "There's No Business Like Show Business" with a thorough understanding of just what this song has come to mean since the first time it was played. He flat-out nails it - and should you find yourself unmoved by his rendition, maybe you need to seek professional help. His musical performance doesn't stop there, of course; in fact, it only gets better with his witty "My Defenses Are Down," in which he admits he's fallen for Annie, with the strong backup of a chorus of cowboys; and the pair's duets on "The Girl That I Marry" and "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" (which could very well be my favorite number from this awe-inspiring score).

Baugher oozes charm and a certain clean-cut sex appeal throughout his performance and his onstage chemistry with Miller is palpable. You can't help but find yourself falling a little bit in love with both of them: When Frank and Annie are finally reunited, you might find yourself, as did I, tearing up at the very sweet and sentimental moment created by two very gifted actors.

Miller and Baugher are given terrific support from the talented cast assembled by the director. David Arnold is impressive in his reading of Buffalo Bill, playing him with a much-needed mix of bravado and believability; Marc Mazzone is ideally cast as the master showman Charlie Davenport, delivering his lines with perfect timing; Phil Perry is somehow stoic and altogether funny as Chief Sitting Bull and Annette de la Torre manages to somehow walk a fine line as the dastardly, yet charming, Dolly Tate.

Brandon McCabe and Ara Vito are fine as Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate, and the pair make the most of their two big musical numbers, "Who Do You Love? (I Hope)" and "I'll Share It All With You." The ensemble features some exceptional Nashville-area actors deserving of praise, including Flynt Foster, Luke Phillips, Bryce Conner, Joe Leavitt, Lindsay Terrizzi Hess, Cat Arnold, Scott Stewart, Melissa Silengo, Laura Amond, Will Sevier, Ann-Houston Campbell, Fred Mullen and Dan Zeilger and Erica Haines Cantrell.

Melissa Cannon's costumes are well-conceived and constructed, while Corbin Green's lighting design and Brian Wright's scenic design provide the perfect backdrop for the onstage antics. It's a great show, though not necessarily perfect - there are a couple of shooting sequences that fail to hit the mark - yet the entire package is so attractive, the story so warmly and expertly presented, that you will be unlikely to leave the theater anything less than completely satisfied by Annie Get Your Gun.

In fact, forget whatever else might be on your schedule at the moment. Call the box office, book your seats and get ready for the musical theater experience that will send you singing into that good night. Don't miss it!

- Annie Get Your Gun. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, as revised by Peter Stone. Directed and music directed by Jamey Green. Choreographed by Pam Atha. Presented by the Boiler Room Theatre, Franklin, through March 12. For details, visit the company website at www.boilerroomtheatre.com; for reservations, call (615) 794-7744.

Pictured (left to right): David Arnold, Corrie Miller and Matt Baugher in Annie Get Your Gun at Franklin's Boiler Room Theatre

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