Here in two parts, we have a little less than twenty minutes of highlights from the 1999 Broadway revival of Annie, Get Your Gun, which starred Bernadette Peters. Carolyn and I saw this shortly after it opened and I believe we took along our pal Rick Scheckman. A guy I know got me tickets and assured me they were "great seats"…and I guess they were if you like being in the front row. That's a little too close to really enjoy the show. On the other hand, we could sit there and marvel at the fact that up close, Ms. Peters looked like she was about 26 years old.
This was a nice, fun production of a show that I usually find rather boring — a couple of great, hummable tunes livening up a story no one much cares about. I am told that as fine as Bernadette was in the role (and she was terrific), the whole show got even better when she was replaced by Reba McEntire. Not that Ms. McEntire is a better stage actress but she was "righter" for the part and gave it an amazing energy…or so they said. I didn't get to see it with her in it. Here's a look at Bernadette's version. The male lead is Tom Wopat…
