Cocktail Party Fact: Considering how perfect the score is, it’s hard to believe that Irving Berlin was not the original composer chosen. He only got the job after Jerome Kern died. Berlin was so unsure that he insisted on writing two audition songs before accepting the assignment. The show was also responsible for giving Broadway Belter Ethel Merman her first real ballads to sing. Merman was quoted as saying that by giving her romantic ballads, “Berlin made a lady out of me.”

Here’s The Plot: When Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show has an exhibition match with its star sharpshooter Frank Butler, Butler is bested by hillbilly girl Annie Oakley. She falls in love with him, and joins the show. Frank can’t deal with being second best, and joins rival show Pawnee Bill’s Far East Show. When both companies begin to lose money, Annie tries to get Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill to combine forces. She and Frank quarrel as soon as they get back in the same show. They challenge each other to one more shooting match. Sitting Bull, Annie’s spiritual father, advises her to let Frank win if she wishes to be with the man she loves. She does, and turns her shooting medals over to him. He announces they will be sold to raise funds for the combined show.

Memorable Melodies: “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” “Anything You Can Do,” “The Girl That I Marry,” “I Got Lost In His Arms,” “They Say It’s Wonderful,” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”

Vital Statistics: Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin; book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields; directed by Joshua Logan; choreographed by Helen Tamaris. Originally produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Opened on May 16, 1946 at the Imperial Theater and ran 1,147 performances.

Why See It?: Although in these times it’s hard to heap too much praise on a show which seems to have the message that you have to let your boyfriend win in order to keep him, this show still has much to recommend it. The lead after all is a strong and independent woman, and the score is one of the most rousing and catchy Berlin ever wrote. For the 1966 revivial, Berlin added to the embarassment of riches by writing a new duet for Annie and Frank, “Old Fashioned Wedding,” which stopped show and still does.