Annie Get Your Gun at Jesters Dinner Theatre

The Jesters Dinner Theatre in Longmont, CO opens its 19th season with Annie Get Your Gun, running on weekends from October 5 to November 25, and after a hiatus for the Jesters’ traditional production of Scrooge, it will return from January 4 to the 27th, 2019.

It’s early in the 1880s and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show comes to Cincinnati, Ohio. To gin up interest in the show, its star, sharpshooter Frank Butler, challenges anyone in town to a shooting match. Hotel owner Foster Wilson has just met Annie Oakley, an uneducated young woman from the backwoods who just happens to be a crack shot. He backs her in the match, and she wins, much to the shock of Butler and the excitement of Buffalo Bill and his show manager Charlie Davenport, who have seen the receipts for their show dwindle as they move from town to town. A girl sharpshooter…that just might be what the show needs to start drawing in spectators.

But will Frank Butler – to say nothing of his beautiful assistant Dolly Tate – let Annie Oakley share the spotlight?

The Jesters’ production of Annie Get Your Gun is a little sure shot of delight.

As usual, the Jesters has double-cast and even triple cast the starring roles, which gives audience members the perfect excuse to come see it two or even three times to see how each actor makes their role his or her own.

This reviewer saw Sara Butler as Annie Oakley and Joel Seamons as Frank Butler.

Sara Butler as Annie Oakley. Photo courtesy Jesters Theatre

Sara shines as the backwoods Annie Oakley who falls in love with the handsome Frank Butler. Her “You can’t catch a man with a gun” is funny and poignant at the same time.   Annie is a smart but uneducated young woman who speaks her mind and knows her worth – she is the best shot in the world, and even though she loves Butler that is something she insists the rival sharpshooter acknowledge.

Joel Seamons as Frank Butler. Photo courtesy Jesters Theatre

Joel Seamons as Frank Butler has the commanding presence of the womanizing sharpshooter. If he settles down he wants it to be with a woman who’s “soft as pink as a nursery,” (“The girl that I’ll marry), but he nevertheless is attracted to Annie’s outspokenness and unaffected charm. Their duet, “Anything you can do I can do better” is the highlight of the show.

Lorraine Isbell as Dolly Tate steals every scene she’s in as the conniving assistant to Buffalo Bill – and protector of her younger sister. Isbell’s Tate is the villainess you can’t help but like.

Annie Oakley’s three siblings who travel with her in the show, Pat Masengill as Buffalo Bill and Chuck Glidewell  as Charlie Davenport. Photo courtesy Jesters Theatre

In supporting roles, Jesters stalwarts Chuck Glidewell as Charlie Davenport, Pat Massengill as Buffalo Bill, and Steve Byrne as Chief Sitting Bull work well together as a team, as do the rest of the company.

The music and lyrics for Annie Get Your Gun were written by Irving Berlin. In addition to the comic “You Can’t Catch a Man with a Gun” and “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” there are tender ballads such as “They Say It’s Wonderful,” “I’ll Share It All With You” and “Moonlight Lullaby,” as well as the rousing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

The book was written by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, and revised by Peter Stone.

The Cast

Charlie Davenport Chuck Glidewell
Dolly Tate Ann Allman or Lorraine Isbell
Mr. Wilson David Marcy
Winnie Tate Summer Cushman or Alex Colin
Tommy Christian Ruiz, Brian Davis or Justin Strickett
Frank Butler Joel Seamons or Ben Bishop
Annie Oakley Tara Zumfelde, Sara Butler or Sarah Morrow
Buffalo Bill Pat Massengill
Jessie Lena Byrne, Jade Seamons or Sarah Martinez
Nellie Elisa Bishop, Isabella Delickta-Murphy or Makaela Marr
Little Jake Kaiden Crill, James Zumfelde, or Noah Martinez
Pawnee Bill Jim Berthold
Chief Sitting Bull Steve Byrne
Chorus Debbie Marr, Ann Massengill or Evelyn Leistiko
Chorus Hannah Matousek or Maggie Matousek

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The Crew

Produced & Directed Mary Lou & Scott Moore
Music Direction Mary Lou Moore
Piano Accompaniment Mary Lou Moore & Don Wagner
Costumes Lize Bohnen & Mary Lou Moore
Scenic Painting Angie Cape
Lighting Technicians Lena Byrne, Pete Burke, Alana Noble & Cara Fabian
Choreography Shannon Bohnen
Special thanks Jim Berthold, Doug Greenspan, Kathy Butler, Cindy Gochenour, Lisa Hensley, Alex Colin, Scotty Bohnen, Danny Bohnen and Stella and Elliot

How to Get to the Jesters

The Jesters is at 224 Main Street in the historic downtown of Longmont, Colorado. There is a parking lot adjacent to the theatre, as well as street parking along Main Street.

It’s only about a 50 minute drive from Denver north to Longmont up I25, or an hour’s drive south from Cheyenne on I25. It’s about 6 miles further once you take the exit from I-25 toward Longmont.

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