Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Annie Get Your Video

5/30/2013

2 Comments

 
Back in January, 2001, Reba McIntire was signed to take over the role of 'Annie Oakley' in the then-running revival of Annie Get Your Gun.  She only was signed for six months.  By all reports, it was a remarkable performance, considered one of the best-ever, made all the more remarkable from someone who had never even appeared in a play before.  (Or, as far as I recall, perhaps never had even acted before.)  But as a country music star, as opposed to the traditional Broadway performer she was not only uncommonly perfect in the role, but sang the roof off the theater.

There were plans to do a TV production and memorialize the performance.  But then two Broadway musicals adapted for TV were fairly unsuccessful (Bye Bye Birdie and The Music Man), and so network interest shriveled and disappeared, and the production foolishly never went forward.  And the acclaimed performance was lost for the ages.

Except -- thanks to YouTube, all that is lost shall be found.  There is a full video recording of Reba McIntire's renowned performance in Annie Get Your Gun.

Now, I must say here upfront that I do not like bootleg videos.  At worst, I find many borderline reprehensible and all a slap in the face of copyright holders.  In some cases, they take money away from the rights-holder.  And this is a bootleg recording.  Someone taped the performance from the balcony.

But I am not inflexible.  (Nor a lawyer...)  It's just that sometimes there are things that would otherwise be lost forever, and so -- wrong as it is -- I'm glad that something valuable has been preserved.  Also, speaking just personally, I look at a lot of this from a scholastic level -- I write extensively about Broadway, so I find it personally important to be able to know what I'm writing about.  Yes, I understand that this is stretching credibility and borderline hypocritical.  But I still believe it.  When I do watch bootleg videos, I tend to do so under certain self-imposed restrictions.  (They're far too long to go into here and basically only of interest to me.)

And so, with that lengthy explanation, I'm going to embed part of the video here.  The full performance is broken into about 15 10-minute videos.  I haven't watched the whole thing (that relates to one of those self-imposed restrictions...) but I've seen enough to know that the reputation of Reba McIntire's is well-justified.

And so, I'll show you what I mean. 

In segment #2, Reba McIntire sings, "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun."  It's absolutely, joyously, hilariously wonderful, and that's what I've embedded it below.  (But know that that's all I've embedded, not even the full segment.  I've edited everything else out and got it down to run the one song only.   Again, maybe this is stretching what is proper, and a salve to my conscience, but I think I've done my best to be as protective as reasonable.)

And the "as reasonable" is the operative word here, because I think this performance and particular song is simply too good to be lost to history forever.  Some things deserve their place in the sun, even when that place is stretched.

How good is her performance of this song?   I played it for my parents a couple years ago and -- well, you must understand that not only were they big traditionalists about such things, but they actually saw Ethel Merman on stage in the original Broadway production.  One of the legendary Broadway performances ever.  So, when I said to them that, at the very least, this one song was on a par with that, I was met with great skepticism (to the extent of "Are you crazy??")  When it was over, though, my dad acknowledged that, well, yes, okay she was quite good (which was a huge acknowledgement for him after having made a pronouncement), and attractive, too.  And my mother actually asked to see it again.

In short (well, okay, I'm well-past that at this point...), Reba McIntire just sings the bejeepers out of the song.  She nails every single joke.  She throws herself into it and chews up the stage with her soaring voice.  And -- with all due respect to the legendary Merman -- as my dad noted, you can easily see Frank Butler falling in love with her.

I'm sorry this is bootleg.  I'm thrilled it exists.  It's just one song I've edited down and am posting, but seeing this one song is enough.  The video quality is absolutely terrible -- but after a bit you won't care.  You'll just be so glad to be able to be watching it.  And know, in the end, that it's not lost to the ages.  Not lost, but ...right here, below.

And they still should have made the TV production.  This was Reba McIntire.  People would have watched.  Her fans alone almost would have made it a hit.
2 Comments
Max Kerpelman link
5/30/2013 09:09:17 pm

She was wonderful in the concert version of South Pacific - I really believed Nellie Forbush was raised in Little Rock, ARK.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
5/30/2013 11:00:41 pm

I agree. And the reason she was even in that production was because the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization had to approve her -- which they did, specifically as a result of having seen her in "Annie Get Your Gun."

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2025
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like