Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows, and various online archives preserve still
more vintage productions. Even as things return to normal we
continue to review the experience of watching live theatre
onscreen.
Annie
Get Your Gun
NBC
Television 1957 and YouTube March 2024
Irving Berlin's 1947 Broadway smash hit
featured what may well be the greatest concentration of great songs
ever – 'Doin' What Comes Natur'lly,' ' 'The Girl That I Marry,' 'You
Can't Get A Man With A Gun,' 'Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,' to
name-drop just a few – and have I mentioned 'There's No Business Like
Show Business'?
Not incidentally, it provided a signature
role for one of the greatest stars in Broadway history, Ethel Merman,
whose unique ability to bounce her voice off the back wall of the
theatre with perfect elocution (and no amplification) will forever be
echoed in anyone else's versions of those songs.
It was the common practice in those days
for a hit show to send out a national touring company as quickly as
possible, usually fronted by a solid B-list star. But in this case the
producers (a couple of guys named Rodgers and Hammerstein) went for
the top, with the only Broadway performer on Merman's level, Mary
Martin.
And it is Martin, here paired with another
Broadway A-lister, John Raitt, who stars in this 1957 television
production.
The plot of Annie Get Your Gun (book by
Herbert and Dorothy Fields), loosely based on the life of
nineteenth-century sharpshooter star Annie Oakley, is serviceable
without getting in the way. There are really three things to talk
about – the songs and the two stars.
The score was just one of those theatrical
miracles. At 59, Irving Berlin, however extraordinary his back
catalogue, seemed well past his prime, and wasn't even first choice
for composer.
But he generated one classic-to-be after
another, and in this slightly condensed television version they seem
to come at you relentlessly, giving you barely time to appreciate one
before the next is upon you.
While some, like 'Show Business' and 'Can't
Get A Man' have become part of our genetic memory, others are likely
to surprise you with their sweetness (They Say That Falling In Love Is
Wonderful) or tartness (I'm A Bad Bad Man).
Mary Martin was at least as big a star as
Merman, and something of a lucky charm for producers Rodgers and
Hammerstein, here in 1957 midway between South Pacific and The Sound
Of Music (not to mention Peter Pan).
Where Merman's personality and song-belting
style made her seem like an irresistible force of nature, Martin's
mode and style were both softer and more slyly seductive.
Her Annie is far more vulnerable than
Merman's, and songs like 'You Can't Get A Man' have a touch of
plaintive unhappiness Merman and most subsequent Annies somehow
missed.
And Martin twinkles. Her flashing eyes and
quiet smile flirt shamelessly with the audience and the camera,
suggesting an intimate connection and secret joke between her and us.
(Indeed, with television's reliance on
close-ups, a flirty persona and performance style that worked
brilliantly onstage might occasionally seem a bit too much.)
The one weak link here is John Raitt.
Handsome, manly, with a strong and attractive baritone voice, and a
certified Broadway star (Carousel, The Pajama Game) in his own right,
Raitt also carries what seems sometimes to be the baritone's curse of
being wooden and personality-less.
What is evident here is that he performs in
a vacuum, acting and singing to the audience and never really relating
to anyone around him.
In their scenes together Mary Martin
invariably looks at him while he sometimes literally turns his back on
her to sing to the camera. (It is no surprise to learn that most of
Raitt's later career was in solo concerts rather than book shows.)
The black-and-white recording is well staged for the cameras and of strikingly fine technical quality. Just for the fun of all those great songs and Mary Martin's hard-to-resist personality, this is well worth your time.
Gerald
Berkowitz
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