Gosh, what an exciting night last night! My daughter, Myrna Conn, opened in her first professional theater production, Annie Get Your Gun starring Louise Pitre and Billy Ray Cyrus.

In my opinion, it should have been called Minnie Get Your Gun since, in my unbiased opinion, my daughter Myrna who played Minnie, stole the show from the rest of the extremely wonderful cast!

She looked so comfortable on stage, she was definitely "doin' what comes nat'urly"! Whenever she scurried on stage and smiled, she brought a ray of sunshine! What talent! What acting! What a country accent!

But I think my favorite moment was at the end when she stood in line with the principals and sang "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "They Say That Falling In Love is Wonderful". I got chills.

Or maybe my fave moment was when, at the after party, Myrna introduced me to Louise Pitre! I tried to be cool, but I think I giggled a bit!

RICHARD OUZOUNIAN
THEATRE CRITIC

Annie Get Your Gun

By Irving Berlin, Herbert & Dorothy Fields. Directed by Donna Feore. Until Aug. 20 at Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St. 416-872-1111.

Louise Pitre came back to Toronto last night in Annie Get Your Gun and scored a bull's eye on the hearts of the audience who stood to cheer her in Massey Hall.

As the eagle-eyed Annie Oakley, she delivered all the colours the part demands, from hayseed comedy to romantic pathos. And yes, she can do justice to each of Irving Berlin's great songs, belting out joyously "I Got the Sun in the Morning," then crooning with silky understatement in "I Got Lost in His Arms."

This 1946 musical is generally considered a classic on the strength of Berlin's score, because the book by Herbert & Dorothy Fields — here deftly adapted by Don Carrier — is a pretty simplistic affair about how two champion sharpshooters (Annie and the egotistical Frank Butler) fall in and out of love with each other.

The cast has been given an attractive framework by the clever direction of Donna Feore. She stages everything with a sharp eye and an even sharper sense of humour, delivering much of the punch of a fully staged production, within the confines of a single unchanging set. If you've seen the latest revival of Chicago, you know the approach.

Michael Gianfrancesco has filled the stage with a pleasing arrangement of ramps and platforms, leaving the centre of the space for the full 28-piece orchestra, conducted with aplomb by Rick Fox.

In this era of synthesizers and pre-recorded scores, it's worth the price of admission to hear these glorious tunes played the way Berlin intended, with no corners cut.

The only caveat about a streamlined visual production like this is that it puts the focus squarely on the work of the cast, most of whom are up to the task.

Besides the versatile Pitre, there's fine work from Jonathan Wilson (who plays the hyperactive Charlie as a close cousin of Franklin the Turtle) and that perpetual sass and sashay machine known as Sandra Caldwell, who turns the usually thankless part of Dolly into a series of scene-stealing episodes.

Sandy Winsby is warmly winning Buffalo Bill and Billy Mersaty makes a slyly amusing Sitting Bull.

There's also a pair of cute (but not too cute) stage kids handled nicely by Cameron Ansell and Myrna Conn.

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