Stage Review: 'Annie Get Your Gun' is rootin'-tootin' fun

Col. Buffalo Bill Cody (center) played by Jeffrey Brewer acknowledges a “hit” by sharp-shooter Annie Oakley (right center) portrayed by Kirie Walz in "Annie Get Your Gun" at Theatre Memphis. Looking on are Ashley Bugg Brown (far left) as Dolly Tate, Kent Fleshman (left center) as Frank Butler and Carson Turner (far right) as Tommy Keeler.

Typically, when Theatre Memphis puts on a flashy, old-time musical in which the leading lady's name is in the title ("Hello Dolly!" or "Mame," for example), you can guess within three tries which local actress is starring in it.

The likeliest stage veterans often get the plum roles, as they should. But sometimes Theatre Memphis throws out a casting curveball, as has happened with its current "Annie Get Your Gun," the Irving Berlin musical that calls for one helluva ingenue to play Annie Oakley, the sharp-shooting, razor-tongued star of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.

Col. Buffalo Bill Cody (center) played by Jeffrey Brewer acknowledges a “hit” by sharp-shooter Annie Oakley (right center) portrayed by Kirie Walz in "Annie Get Your Gun" at Theatre Memphis. Looking on are Ashley Bugg Brown (far left) as Dolly Tate, Kent Fleshman (left center) as Frank Butler and Carson Turner (far right) as Tommy Keeler.

The real Oakley would have been 150 years old this year, and were she alive, she'd probably be playing herself. Age appropriateness doesn't factor as much as gumption in the casting of this musical. Ethel Merman was 38 when she premiered the role on Broadway in 1946, and 58 when she revived it in 1966. Bernadette Peters starred in the 1999 Broadway revival at age 51.

So here's the surprise: Theatre Memphis has found not only a relatively unknown 23-year-old actress amid the hoards of local ladies who would shoot their cousin for the title role, but also a performer who is right on target -- a real bull's-eye -- as the pistol-packin' mama.

Kirie Walz, a theater teacher at Germantown High School and a University of Memphis graduate, packs tons of cockeyed swagger and twangy comedy into the role. She's got the voice, charisma and timing to carry the show. We're smitten after her first number, "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," as she stands center stage twirling revolvers in each hand like a professional slinger of firearms. She'd better have a permit.

Kent Fleshmen, the burly baritone whom folks might remember as the dentist from "Little Shop of Horrors" and Trevor Graydon in "Thoroughly Modern Millie," plays the love interest quickly dispatched by Annie's talent. The "big, swollen-headed stiff" Frank Butler is tough as a teddy bear won at a carnival shooting range. The usually scene-stealing actor has met his match in Walz.

Director Jason Spitzer and choreographer Kathy Caradine could have shaved a little off the show's 21/2 - hour run time. The cookie-cutter cowpoke dance numbers drag, while other bits hobble the plot in more progressive minds, particularly the white people portraying Native Americans doing schoolboy war whoops with their hands over their mouths. Give it irony, or give it a rest.

"Annie Get Your Gun" is not the strongest Theatre Memphis season opener in terms of a sparkling ensemble and set spectacle, but for sheer musical pleasure, it's hard to resist Broadway hits such as "There's No Business Like Show Business," "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," and "I Got the Sun in the Mornin'" sung with old-fashioned gusto.

Walz sets a high personal standard in her break-out role. Let's hope she's got the range to stick with it, because some folks might already be looking forward to seeing her in the 2040 revival.

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"Annie Get Your Gun"

The play continues at Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Ext., through Sept. 12. Shows are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $28 adults, $15 students, $10 children. Call 682-8323.

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