Annie Get Your Gun is best known as a musical written by Irving Berlin in 1946. Its musical score features some of the most well-known songs in the musical world, including the musical anthem, "There's No Business Like Show Business." A revival of the show was written in 1999 by Peter Stone, with aims to change it to fit the modern view of gender relationships and eliminate some of the parts of the piece that were viewed as racist against Native Americans. There is also a movie that was released in 1950 after the musical proved massively popular.
The musical is based on the book of the same name by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, which is in turn a fictional version of the life of real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The show follows the development of the relationship between Annie and her husband Frank Butler, beginning with how they married and ending with how they finally came to terms with each other. The basic idea of the plot is this: Frank is a traveling champion marksman and a member of a western show led by Buffalo Bill. He is challenged by Annie and loses, and Annie joins the show. When the show is forced to use Annie as the center of the show in order to get better reviews than a rival show, Frank is offended by being shown up and leaves the show, despite already being romantically attracted to Annie. Annie, however, is adopted by a rich Native American (Chief Sitting Bull, who in real life defeated General Custer), which means that she succeeds in both saving the show and securing financial backing for it. Annie and the show use their new money to tour Europe, which turns out to be a great artistic success, but a financial mistake, as the government has taken the lands on which Sitting Bull's money-making oil was. In contrast, the rival show has picked up Frank as their lead act and is successfully playing in New York; however, they too are going broke because of fees from the city. The leaders of the two shows come to each other both expecting the other to be rich and set up a merger. When they realize that there is no money between the two shows, Annie again comes to the rescue, saying she will back the merger by selling the gold medals she received from the monarchs in Europe for money. Frank and Annie are reunited and very much in love, but when Frank sees her medals, his pride is again threatened, and the situation turns sour. They end up challenging each other to a second shooting match, which Annie throws so that Frank will love her again (in the revival, Frank also throws the match and they end up tied). As a result, they can live happily ever after.
The original score includes all of the following numbers:
Act I
1. Overture
2. Buffalo Bill
3. I'm a Bad, Bad Man
4. Doin' What Comes Natur'lly
5. The Girl that I Marry
6. You Can't Get a Man with a Gun
7. There's No Business Like Show Business
8. They Say It's Wonderful
9. Moonshine Lullaby
10. I'll Share It All With You
11. Ballyhoo
12. There's No Business Like Show Business (Reprise)
13. My Defenses Are Down
14. Wild Horse Ceremonial Dance
15. I'm an Indian Too!
16. Adoption Dance
Act II
17. Entr'acte
18. I Got Lost in His Arms
19. Who Do You Love, I Hope?
20. I Got the Sun in the Morning
21. They Say It's Wondeful (Reprise)
22. The Girl That I Marry (Reprise)
23. Anything You Can Do
24. "Show Business" (Reprise and Finale)
The revival's score is very reduced, including:
Act I
1. There's No Business Like Show Business
2. Doin What Comes Natur'lly
3. The Girl That I Marry
4. You Can't Get a Man With a Gun
5. There's No Business Like Show Business (Reprise)
6. I'll Share It All With You
7. Moonshine Lullaby
8. Show Business (Reprise)
9. They Say It's Wonderful
10. My Defenses Are Down
11. Act Finale: "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun"
Act II
12. Entr'acte
13. I Got Lost in His Arms
14. Who Do You Love, I Hope?
15. I Got the Sun in the Morning
16. An Old-Fashioned Wedding
17. The Girl That I Marry (Reprise)
18. Anything You Can Do
19. They Say It's Wonderful (Finale)
The revival is a good deal shorter, and is treated as a "show within a show," where the actors are playing the part of actors in Buffalo Bill's show, and they are putting on the show as if it were still the 1940's.