Considering America's gun problem, is ANNIE GET YOUR GUN incapable of being revived responsibly?- Page 2

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 9/10/24 at 1:24am

"You are either playing to an audience who feels squeamish, or you are playing to right wing gun lovers, and there’s not much grey area."

That is not a remotely true statement - it's your opinion, and a vastly inaccurate generalization. For example, there are plenty of left wing "gun lovers", or as they are more commonly known, gun owners.

When you make statements like this, positing them as fact, then yes, I'd say you are over-reacting. AGYG does not glorify guns. It's a true story (for the most part) of a real woman who took up a gun in order to feed her family, and later came to fame for her skills.

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/10/24 at 5:05pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "BETTY22 said: "I think if a big star wanted to do it, it would get produced.

Would there be an audience for it today.....I'm not so sure."

Surely no audience for it without a star, as with a lot of other titles.

It's one of those situations where I doubt there are many (if any) boffo box office ladies nowadays who are like "I want to do ANNIE GET YOUR GUN above any othermusical." Wishing for a star is easier than actually securing one."

It's interesting that this role was so key for Merman, who considered it central to softening her image. Annie willing to throwing the shooting match to preserve Frank Butler's ego (and heal their relationship) showed a vulnerability she'd heretofore lacked. And I think a lot of female stars of that era felt a similar attraction to the role, though Mary Martin apparently loved it because it was the first chance she had to play the tomboy she always considered herself to be. 

Today, I think, it's the opposite. Female stars don't want to play a role where a woman has to subjugate herself to a man, to hide their talents to be found attractive, and they certainly don't want to present such a message to impressionable young girls who may be in the audience. I think this will be a bigger factor in the paucity of future productions than America's gun problem (and, boy, does it have one!). 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 9/10/24 at 5:45pm

The gender politics of the show as-written are definitely one of the show's problems!

RE: the Merm of it all, I'd love to jump into the time capsule, because her recorded versions of "Lost In His Arms" never work for me. The voice is just too powerful for that lovely, delicate song.

[JBradshaw]

Posted: 9/11/24 at 2:56am

why are they a problem? 
it’s a friggin musical  

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The gender politics of the show as-written are definitely one of the show's problems!

Lost In His Arms" never workfor me. The voice is justtoopowerful for that lovely, delicate song."

 

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 9/11/24 at 2:32pm

Mr. Wormwood said: "I think it sort of depends on the type of theater group and the community. I don't think it's necessarily irresponsible to perform it. But I do think, for many of the reasons you mentioned, that it will fade more and more into obscurity as the years go on. There are former staples of HS & community theater like Lil' Abner, The Pajama Game, Barnum, No No Nanette, etc that have dropped off big time in terms of numbers of productions mounted. I think Annie Get Your Gun has already headed in that direction and will continue to."

I've actually recently had an idea of revising The Pajama Game; updates and refocusing to give it a stronger pro-labor spin, and some rewrites to modernize the central romances that would make it all less chauvinistic & cringe. There's still a pro-labor message underneath it all, fluffy as it is, and that could work in today's context.

This thread has me thinking if there's a way to do it with Annie Get Your Gun too...sure it's riddled with problems but is there a way to maintain the spirit of the piece while giving it an honest feminist outlook that doesn't require Annie giving her power away? and also to correct the racial stereotypes throughout? Both shows have such great scores and it would be tragic to lose them to time.