SuRie in Annie Get Your Gun at the Lavender Theatre, Epsom. Picture: Harry Elletson
Annie Get Your Gun continues at the Lavender Theatre, Epsom until 5 August 2023.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Irving Berlin’s classic but rarely revived musical, bursting with vitality and vigour, is a breath of fresh, lavender-scented air to launch a brave new theatrical venture not far from Epsom Downs racecourse, the home of the Derby.
Co-founded by artistic director Joe McNeice and Mayfield Lavender owner Brendan Maye, a large, basic stage is open to the elements but the 200-plus seats, set sideways in five wide rows, are covered. Plus, for £15, you can sit on the grass at the side and take your chances with the weather. And if you’re peckish or thirsty, the lavender shortbread and lavender tea are good!
Sometimes the old ones are the best and Annie Get Your Gun, written in 1946 about Annie Oakley, the real-life star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West travelling show which was so popular in those spit-and-sawdust early showbiz days of the 1880s, is darn tootin’ good to look at and listen to with its feast of songs that have stood the test of time and are just as recognisable today as they were when Ethel Merman sang them on Broadway.
Who doesn’t know ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’, ‘I Got the Sun in the Morning’, ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly’ and that showstopping rat-a-tat-tat duet between Annie and her lovin’ and shootin’ partner Frank Butler, ‘Anything You Can Do’?
Or those dreamy, delightful, romantic ones ‘They Say It’s Wonderful’, ‘Moonshine Lullaby’ and ‘I Got Lost in His Arms’? One great number after another… if only the new musicals of today had the same generous ratio instead of the odd one or two.
And the theme of a sassy pioneer woman who couldn’t read or write but was not only the equal of but superior to the male of the species in the macho world of trick-shot marksmanship has echoes today in the woman’s role in society.
Driven by musical director Debbi Clarke’s hard-working band of six just visible behind the set among the trees, a young, enthusiastic cast do full justice to a score they are clearly in love with. There is clear chemistry between the leads SuRie, a RAM graduate who went on to sing for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest (and sailed through activist disruption when she performed), and Charlie McCullagh. Both are funny and have great timing – “I’ve seen worse than you”… “Why, Frank, that’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard.”
The prolific Berlin – his work ranged from ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ to ‘God Bless America’ – would have been delighted to hear his best work sung with such clarity, not only by the leads but there is a strong ‘I’ll Share It All With You’ from Joseph Vella as Tommy in the secondary show romance with Nina Bell’s Winnie. That duo’s song and dance routine on ‘Who Do You Love, I Hope’ is expertly choreographed by the multi-tasking director Simon Hardwick who also deserves great credit for ‘The Sun in the Morning’ sequence, performed with great gusto by the ensemble.
The most experienced member of the team, Chlöe Hart, who recently toured in Six, makes the most of some good lines as man-chasing Dolly; Elliot Broadfoot is a crowd-pleasing Buffalo Bill; Joe Boyle, a 2022 Sondheim Student Performer of the Year finalist, shows good all-round skills as his No. 2; and American actor Jay Faisca has a strong stage presence as Chief Sitting Bull.
Not normally a great fan of child actors, the adorable trio playing Annie’s young siblings Nellie, Jessie and Little Jake totally won me over. Six girls are sharing the roles over the show’s run to 5 August and I saw the Red team of Layla Duke, Mayah Balcerak and Caitlin Muggeridge. The Blue team is doubtless just as cute and children’s director Anna Hale has done a fabulous job with them.
Other cast members, all doing their bit, are Kyerron Dixon-Bassey, Marisa Harris, dance captain Holly Lawrence and AJ Lewis. Top marks too to Adam King’s lighting.
It’s surprising we don’t get more Annie Get Your Gun revivals as it is so feisty and tuneful. Speaking to members of the audience, many of them were seeing it for the first time. It’s obviously ideal for the open-air treatment because its last listed appearance in the UK was with Gemma Sutton and Joel Montague on a farm in Cheshire two years ago. The last two professional productions I saw were in London, at the Young Vic in 2009 version when not even Julian Ovenden’s golden tonsils could save the day, and at the Union Theatre in 2017 which failed to get to the show’s heart – but this was far more enjoyable and a highly promising start to the “new kid on the block”. It’s easy to be patronising and give an extra star to any young enterprise as encouragement because one is willing it to succeed but in this case all five are totally merited. Here’s to the Lavender Fields Mob giving us many more musical winners. Meanwhile, great start, chaps.
Jeremy Chapman
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