Mary Martin ANNIE GET YOUR GUN 1957 TV version part 1

Mary Martin singing YOU CAN'T GET A MAN WITH A GUN from the 1957 television production of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN by IRving Berlin

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[lobbiesforme]

well, i have the whole show.... so more will be coming.

[DeanLeonard1]

Mary Martin rocks.

[kbmrcampbell]

Mary Martin is my all time Broadway favorite leading lady. Yes there were bigger voices (Merman) and better voices (Barbara Cook) but she was the best actress with a beautiful lyric soprano that certainly Rodgers & Hammerstein appreciated.

[damone77]

an anecdote: So Irving Berlin was playing the score for "Annie" for it's producers Rodgers and Hammerstein. He plays "There's no Business like show Biz" and meekly asks...is that alright? I can write something else. Just goes to prove we don't sometimes know our own genius.

[kbmrcampbell]

@rapture1987 her timbre was a lyric soprano just ask Enzio Pinza about her in the wings singing the last note to his Some Enchanted Evening when he didn't have the note. Voice is determined more by timbre than range. She did not have the range of a Cook...but who does, but she had a light crystal clear soprano and her diction and clarity where unmatched. Now my former neighbor the late John Lombardi was a operactic bass-baritone and had an A flat, perhaps he was a beautiful lyric soprano.

[paulostroff99]

Lovely singing. TY lf for posting.

[cullicocopop]

can you post her singing "sun int he morning moon at night?" - my favorite song and I'll bet her version is great!

[bRDwyAnnIe]

Not to take away from all the ladies who have portrayed "Annie Oakley", but I personally think Reba McEntire was absolutely the best Annie. She didn't even have to change her "accent"...........LOL!

[Rapture1987]

@MrsProdos It's very interesting that you comment on how much "bigger" Mary Martin was in those other productions. I think, in this TV version, Martin was trying her hardest to *STRIKE A BALANCE* between Ethel Merman & Betty Hutton's big, brassy styles and an alternate approach to the part.

On the one hand, she obviously didn't want to recreate Ethel & Betty's "large-than-life" approaches, but on the other hand, she realised the role of Annie required some of Ethel & Betty's brassy qualities.

[Rapture1987]

@kbmrcampbell Mary Martin wasn't a "beautiful lyric soprano". She was a MEZZO soprano belter. A Lyric Soprano is someone like Marni Nixon or Carol Lawrence or even Barbara Cook.

Martin's songs were generally placed in the range between F below Middle C and the F below High C. The classic Mezzo and Belter range. Even Ethel Merman, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand sang in comparable ranges - because like them, Mary Martin wasn't a SOPRANO.

Voice type is determined by range and also TIMBRE.

[Rapture1987]

Even the orchestrations are ostensibly different here from the studio recording - on that, the orchestra soothingly caresses lines like 'With a gun! With a gun!' , with STRING rather than BRASS instruments, because Martin sang them in a very subdued and caressing manner.

In the live version here, Martin BELTS those words out all the way - recapturing Merman and Hutton's styles. The orchestra reflects the changes Martin made in her singing, emphasising the BRASS instruments in those sections.

[Rapture1987]

However, the Studio recording was done before they even started REHEARSING for this TV version - and by the time what you see here was shot, Mary Martin had clearly decided to abandon the subdued, mellifluous approach and reclaim more of Ethel Merman and Betty Hutton's brassy and brazen characterisations.

I just don't think it worked here, because while Merman and Hutton's brash Annies reflected their own personas (at the time) somewhat, Mary Martin is clearly *FORCING IT UPON HERSELF* here.

[Rapture1987]

@rockanoarkennels On the Studio Recording of this 1957 TV version, Mary Martin characterises Annie *TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY*. She barely attempts any kind of accent, and renders all the songs in very *SOFT*, SUBDUED, *MELLIFLUOUS* tones. It's as if she was thinking: "I'm going to remove myself from Ethel Merman's brass belting style as FAR as I can, and render Annie's songs the classic Mary Martin way!"

It didn't work on the recording because she was singing the songs as Mary Martin, not as Annie