REVIEW: ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, Young Vic, October 19 2009

Let's get one thing clear from the start. I don't much like Annie Get Your Gun as a show. Frank Butler is one of the most annoying, cocksure, swaggering heroes ever to strut across a stage - and that much is intentional. However, sitting through the entire show waiting for Annie's great climbdown has me gnawing my knuckles in frustration.

Irving Berlin's songs, though, are magnificent, and Jane Horrocks, as our titular heroine, gives a nuanced performance, making Little Miss Sureshot an appealing naif (and waif), even if she hasn't got the belty singing voice one normally associates with the role. Julian Ovenden, as Butler, is devilishly handsome and sings beautifully, and even managed to almost make me sympathise with him as his beloved boasted about her shooting prizes. In fact, the entire cast are good at what they do.

The re-staging of the piece to set it in the 1940s (I think) is a choice I didn't much like; the persistent use of projections is cringeworthy (though to be fair much of the audience was roaring with laughter as a superimposed Horrocks met various world leaders to receive plaudits); the stage is wide and narrow, leaving little scope for movement; and the much-discussed scoring of the show with four pianos just made it sound like it was a rehearsal, making do with the keyboards while waiting for the band to be engaged.

Still, this remains a show that'll pull in the crowds - about a quarter of the audience were singing along, and a sizeable minority were teenagers on a trip, who thought they were too cool for musical theatre but ended up so engaged in the show they were leaning over the balcony to make sure they missed none of the action. And that has to be a good thing.

To post a comment, you must register and login.