'Annie Get Your Gun' enjoyable

STARS- - John Gaston portrays Frank Butler, and Alison Friedman is Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun." The Conejo Players' new production of Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun" doesn't squarely hit the bull'seye, but the show has sufficient merit to make it an enjoyable experience.

Now celebrating its 50th season entertaining Conejo Valley audiences, the Conejo Players Theatre rounds up local amateur performers and volunteers in presenting classics as well as rarely seen gems of the stage.

Unfortunately, the "Annie" that is being presented is not the original 1946 version that was written for Ethel Merman, but Peter Stone's 1999 inferior revival, which starred Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat. A number of changes in this version cause one to question why they were necessary in the first place.

The major change was its transformation from a straight musical biography to a "show within a show," with actors re-creating the life of Annie Oakley as part of a touring circus act.

Instead of the production opening with an overture featuring Berlin's loveliest score, John Gaston, as male chauvinist sharpshooter Frank Butler, comes right out singing the show's most famous tune, "There's No Business Like Show Business." The song is sung three more times before show's end, which reduces its impact in the key scene when Butler, impresario Buffalo Bill and manager Charlie Davenport sing it to neophyte Annie Oakley.

The rest of the show is interrupted periodically by Davenport (well-played by Derek Foster), who announces "scenes," as the performers are not meant to be actual people, but actors playing parts. Several key Berlin songs were dropped from the 1999 revival, including Annie's "I'm an Indian Too" and Butler's opening "I am" number, "I'm a Bad, Bad Man." In addition, the show reinstates a subplot of the relationship between Tommy and Winnie, two minor characters whose roles had been deleted in the first revival of the show in 1966.

The Conejo Players' production belongs solely to Alison Friedman, who plays the roughandtumble but vulnerable Annie Oakley with a scrappy innocence. Her backwoods accent is perfect, with every "if'n" and "purt near" properly in place. Friedman proves herself to be a marvelous comedian, with a sweetness that Ethel Merman could never pull off. She is a joy to watch.

As Frank Butler, Gaston looks more like Garth Brooks than the hunky Wild West star, but he sings beautifully, and the chemistry between him and Friedman is believable. More disappointing was Neil Pennywitt's Buffalo Bill. Although affable and likable, Pennywitt did not play the part with the flamboyance the larger-than-life showman's role demands. His lines, whether delivered at the poker table or announcing the acts in his show, were too conversational, and there is little sign of the colorful personality Buffalo Bill Cody became in frontier America in the 1880s.

As the taciturn Sitting Bull, Ken Jones gets most of the funny lines in the show and delivers them stoically and well. Newcomer Amanda Dreschler, who plays Frank Butler's floozy assistant Dolly Tate, is effective in the one role in the show that causes any kind of conflict, the difficult blonde bimbo also manifested in such roles as Lina in "Singin' in the Rain" and Miss Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls."

Other musical highlights of the show include "An Old-Fashioned Wedding," which features two juxtaposed countermelodies (a Berlin specialty that was added to the 1966 revival), and the "11:00 number" of one-upmanship, "Anything You Can Do."

The small pit band, directed by Linda Stiegler, is not to be faulted for the rather thin sound of the score provided; Berlin's music really requires a lusher, fuller orchestra, which would better serve such classic songs as "The Girl That I Marry" and "They Say It's Wonderful."

Despite its minor flaws, "Annie Get Your Gun" is still well worth seeing. It's a great show for the entire family, and the Conejo Players always does its best to encourage local performers to "do what comes natur'lly" to get their moment in the spotlight.

"Annie Get Your Gun" continues through Sept. 20. For tickets, visit www.conejoplayers.org or call the box office at (805) 495-3715.