 annie get your gun is a musical with lyrics and music by irving berlin and a book by dorothy fields and her brother herbert fields. the story is a fictionalized version of the life of annie oakley (1860â1926), a sharpshooter who starred in buffalo bill's wild west, and her romance with sharpshooter frank butler.a number of internet sources claim that the musical is based on walter havighurst's book annie oakley of the wild west, but the book was written in 1954, eight years after the musical was first produced. the 1946 broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both new york (1,147 performances) and london, spawning revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. songs that became hits include "there's no business like show business", "doin' what comes natur'lly", "you can't get a man with a gun", "they say it's wonderful", and "anything you can do." ==history and background== dorothy fields had the idea for a musical about annie oakley, to star her friend, ethel merman. producer mike todd turned the project down, so fields approached a new producing team, richard rodgers and oscar hammerstein ii. after the success of their first musical collaboration, oklahoma!, rodgers and hammerstein had decided to become producers of both their own theatrical ventures and those by other authors.bloom and vlastnik, p.13 they agreed to produce the musical and asked jerome kern to compose the music; fields would write the lyrics, and she and her brother herbert would write the book. kern, who had been composing for movie musicals in hollywood, returned to new york on november 2, 1945 to begin work on the score to annie get your gun, but three days later, he collapsed on the street due to a cerebral hemorrhage.nolan, pp.164-65 kern was hospitalized, and he died on november 11, 1945.kern, p. 165 the producers and fields then asked irving berlin to write the musical's score; fields agreed to step down as lyricist, knowing that berlin preferred to write both music and lyrics to his so
1946_musicals Broadway_musicals Musicals_inspired_by_real-life_events Songs_from_Annie_Get_Your_Gun