‘Annie’ enraptures MCA crowd Exuberant cast, memorable music hit most of their intended targets

Troika Entertainment’s touring production of “Annie Get Your Gun” hit most of the targets it was shooting for Friday night at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

The exuberant cast kept the sold-out audience at Hutchins Concert Hall enraptured through much of the two-plus hour show, through a standing ovation at the end. The production was colorful and high-caliber, with dialogue and musical numbers coming through crystal clear.

The musical took the

crowd away from a snowy

Maine night to a Wild West

show in the early 1900s.

“Annie Get Your Gun” tells the story of how touring sharpshooters Frank Butler and Annie Oakley meet, fall in love, squabble, separate, then get back together in the end, and of the lives around them that their relationship affects.

The strength of the musical is the memorable songs by legendary tunesmith Irving Berlin, including “The Girl That I Marry,” “Anything You Can Do,” and the showstopper “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

The standout in the cast as Bonnie Estes as Annie Oakley. The red-headed Estes succeeded in capturing Annie’s fire and shows the often bumpy journey she takes from backwoods girl to maturing woman. Her powerful voice brought real spark to Annie’s many numbers.

As the cocky Frank Butler, Stephen Valahovic wasn’t quite Estes’ match vocally, but the swagger and occasional vulnerability he brought to Butler made him equally believable as well.

Other strong performances came from Chris McDaniel as impresario Buffalo Bill, MacLain Looper as tour manager Charlie Davenport and Stewart Brown as Chief Sitting Bull.

The large cast made effective use of the smallish MCA stage during such colorful song-and-dance numbers as “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “I Got the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Band.”

The company employed an interesting way to change backdrops, as one of the ensemble would perform a short act in a spotlight while the other actors set up for the next scene. It was an effective device that kept the production moving along.

The only drawback was the much-ballyhooed, revised script for the period piece by Peter Stone. In an effort to be more politically correct, many of the outdated references to American Indians were excised, but most women would still protest a underlying message that Annie, portrayed as a strong, independent woman, must have her man to be complete.

But that philosophical quibble aside, “Annie Get Your Gun” scored high marks as a rollicking good time. It was a real entertainment bulls-eye.