Customer Reviews

Annie Get Your Gun: An Original Cast Album (1966 Lincoln Center Cast)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album of the 20th anniversary revival from 1966 is, in fact, much better than the original Decca cast album. For starters it has better sound (and in stereo too!) and is more complete. It is also laid out in theatrical order so the listener can follow the show from Overture to Finale. Merman's voice comes across bright and brassy as ever..she we 58 at the time but certainly doesn't sound it.

To answer queries by two other reviewers:

1. The famous Merman version of "There's No Busines Like Show Business" was never heard in the show. As originally written the song was to be sung by the other characters to Annie to convince her to join the Wild West Show. After hearing the song in rehearsals, Merman wanted to sing it to, so an extra verse was added ("There's No Business Like Show Business if You tell me it's so...") and she was also given a short reprise later in the show. She did, however, do solo versions on radio and Tv and in 1954 starred in a movie called THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS and it is the soundtrack recording of that movie that yielded her famous recording of the song.

2. The song "Old Fashioned Wedding" was not in the original show nor the movie. Irving Berlin wrote it for this 1966 revival and it became another showstopper in a score filled with hits. Because of this new song added to the revival the minor characters of Tommy and Winnie (two young lovers in the wild west show) were downplayed and their two duets "I'll Share It All With You" and "Who Do You love I Hope" were both cut from the revival. Since this is the usual version sent out for community groups, those two songs are seldom heard anymore and "Old Fashioned Wedding is almost always included.

In 1966, Richard Rodgers, then the president and producing-director for Music Theater of Lincoln Center, decided to produce a revival of 1946's smash-hit Irving Berlin musical ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, which had established its star Ethel Merman as one of the greatest Broadway divas.

Rodgers persuaded Ethel Merman to reprise her role in the revival. Merman had not been on the Broadway stage since 1959's GYPSY and subsequent tour, and was eager to return to the role that she had immortalized. The revival also featured Bruce Yarnell as Frank Butler, Jerry Orbach as Charlie Davenport and Benay Venuta as Dolly Tate (the role she had played in the 1951 film version).

ANNIE GET YOUR GUN opened at the New York State Theatre on May 31, 1966 and played a stricly-limited run of 47 performances before heading out for a touring season. It later returned to the bigger Broadway Theatre for an additional 77 performances.

As always, Merman is a delight. She peels away the years as she sings showstopers like "I Got the Sun in the Morning", "I Got Lost in His Arms", and "Moonshine Lullaby". Bruce Yarnell sings a gorgeous "I'm a Bad, Bad Man" as well as a jaunty "My Defences are Down".

Of course, nothing will displace the original 1946 recording, but completists and Broadway fans will find a lot to love about this second cast album featuring Ethel Merman.

Highly-recommended.

Hearing this back to back with Merman's original 1946 cast recording is an education. Although a wobble is developing, here she is no less in control, no less full of power, character and sheer exuberance. The stereo sound is excellent and the rest of the cast and the orchestra do not let Ms. Merman down. Yarnell is in wonderful voice as Frank. It is an exceptional recording of an exceptional score - the only songs missing are the two for the soubrettes (they were dropped entirely from the show's book after the original run closed) and a new one from Berlin's pen, AN OLD FASHIONED WEDDING, is as fine as anything he ever wrote and completely in character within the show. Of all the Annie albums this is the best.

Note: Of the nine recordings made of the show, eight have been released on CD (the soundtrack is being re-released next month). Sadly, the great studio cast recording with Criswell and Hampson has quickly gone out of print - undeservedly. The one recording remaining for CD imprint is the Columbia studio cast recording with Doris Day and Robert Goulet - another excellent job.

I had been searching for some time for this recording of "An Old Fashioned Wedding" and I'm glad I finally found it - especially as it is an extended version (and previously unreleased)! All of the songs on this disc are superbly reproduced from the original recordings and are simply a joy to behold!

I find it surprising that enquiries from musical afficianados - and physical music sales outlets regarding "An Old Fashioned Wedding" resulted in either "Oh no, I'm afraid it's not on the soundtrack recording - you must have got the name of the song wrong!" or "You MUST mean the song 'The Girl That I Marry'".

What a pity, though, that the duet was not featured in the movie as it would have made a superb show which was already full of smashing songs and music, a real masterpiece! Both Ethel and Bruce produce a truly memorable version of Irving Berlin's new song for the 1966 20th-anniversary revival, which was written in his familiar contrapuntal style. Whoever said that this recording of the songs and music from the show is better than the original 1946 production was absolutely right. If you want the true feeling of "Annie Get Your Gun" then this is surely the recording to get. It's a real showstopper!!

This 1966 Revival Cast recording of Annie Get Your Gun is by far the most complete of all of the Annie albums I've heard. It features the original star of the show, Ethel Merman, reprising the role she originally created in 1946. Although she is nearly sixty years old, you definately cannot tell that here. She is wonderful and is supported by a dynamite cast. The following year, 1967, she went on to appear in a television production of Annie (Mary Martin had starred in the original television production of the show ten years earlier) and the production included most of the cast featured on this album. Unfortunately, any tapes of this TV production have been lost.

Each of the recordings of Annie is good in its own right. I haven't heard the original 1946 album. The 1957 Mary Martin television cast album is by far my favorite. The 1950 MGM film soundtrack is good because one can hear the version featuring Betty Hutton, who starred in the film, with the other half of the disc devoted to a nearly-complete soundtrack featuring Judy Garland, who was originally cast as Annie, but was unfortunately fired from the studio before the film was completed (she had already prerecorded her songs). Interestingly enough, Frank Morgan (who played Professor Marvel, among other roles, in the Wizard of Oz) was originally cast as Colonel Buffalo Bill. He, however, died during production and had to be recast. The 1999 Revival Cast album featuring Bernadette Peters is not my favorite, but it is good for what it has to offer; it's actually better than I first thought it was.

If you're new to "Annie" this is probably the album to start with. It's definately a winner.

I just love this cd. I have been fascinated with this musical since I saw a clip of the movie when I was 12. I got the cd of Ethel Merman for Christmas and at first, disliked her shrill voice. Soon though, it grew on me and now I find her to be the best performer of Annie. I saw the Broadway show with Bernadette Peters and it was a great show, but Merman will always be the original Annie for me.

Remarkably, Ethel Merman lost absolutely nothing in the years between the original Broadway version and this 1966 revival, she can still belt it out with the best and arguably is even better. Bruce Yarnell is a splendid Frank Butler, I disagree with the reviewer who thought his voice was too operatic, and Jerry Orbach is superb too. Great sound quality, and the extended version of Old Fashioned Wedding (a remarkable piece of writing, where two totally different songs are sung simultaneously in perfect synch) is a treat. The original is quite good (the movie version, on the other hand, is an embarassment), but this is the best.

Ethel Merman in the definative recording of one of her best roles.

The Decca set recorded in 1946 is woefully incomplete. Here she is - 20 years later - recreating the part and singing with the same vereve and gusto. If anything the voice comes through even better on the fine stereo recording.

The rest of the cast is first-rate also. For this 1966 revival the authors tinkered a bit with the book and dropped two minor songs from the original ("I'll Share it all with with you" and "Who do you love, I Hope?") and added a new showstopping counterpoint duet for Miss Merman and Bruce Yarnell: "An Old-fashioned Wedding."

RCA has done a good job with the CD transfer even if the old master tapes exhibit some distortion that could not be eliminated. It does not spoil one's enjoyment of an otherwise fine cast album.

For the most part, this recording is good. Ethel Merman is in fine voice here, bringing us back to the glory days of old as she belts out that wonderful Irving Berlin score as only she can. (And in stereo, too!) Bruce Yarnell is okay as Frank Butler, but his voice is a bit too operetic. The supporting cast, particularly Jerry Orbach, is fine, as well. As for the songs themselves, I will quote a review of this revival that is itself quoted in the CD's liner notes: "Proudly relying on sheer tunefulness...endlessly delightful and wonderfully melodious numbers that cling to the memory and never seem to grow tiresome." Couldn't have said it better myself.

The only dissapointment is we don't get to hear the Merm sing much of "There's No Buisiness Like Show Business." Just a tiny verse or two in the major song, the rest of which is sung by Yarnell, Orbach, and Rufus Smith, and then a short reprise later on. Where's the legendary voice coming together with the legendary song and making magic? Now I'm beginning to wonder if maybe she never sang it in her inimitable way IN THE SHOW ITSELF, but only sang it later on in her act or something. In the 1999 Bernadette Peters revival, aside from becoming the opening number, the song is pretty much sung in the same fashion, first by the Orbach, Yarnell, and Smith characters, and then the reprise by Merman/Peters.

Otherwise, this recording was good. A plus for fans of the Bernadette Peters revival is that you get to hear additional verses and whole songs that were deleted in the revival to keep all the PC people happy. However, since my first exposure to the show was seeing and listening to the album of the Peters revival, I kind of have to give that one the edge. But this recording is still fine.

The sound and superb cast are the ticket for this complete recording of Annie Get Your Gun. Ethel Merman, what can you say? She was a legend and this recording proves it again. Bruce Yarnell was incredible as Frank Butler, and Jerry Orbach, who at that point of his career was 2 years away from his star-making role in "Promises Promises" gives the Charlie Davenport role everything he had. If you have to pick a cd of the show, you can't beat this one.