Small-town feathers are ruffled by the sudden arrival in town of mysterious sexy stranger, Ivy Biggun (she packs the largest dildo in the West). Proving incontrovertibly that you CAN get a gal with a gun, Biggun’s arrival brings heartbreak, betrayal and calamitous choreography with everyone finally agreeing that – on balance – it’s preferable to Stand By Your Dyke.
A whip-crackaway-ride through the worst cliches of the Wild West musical, Murder in The Lezzwood Saloon was the first major venture for the Lezzwood Players and has been performed to sell-out audiences in Brighton, Eastbourne and somewhere up north.
“Looking back, ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ should never have cut the duelling dildo scene” Doris Day (Bus Driver, Bexhill)
Some musical moments from the show:
WATCH: “The Lezzwood Stage”
Wet with anticipation, the occupants of the Lezzwood Saloon hear of the imminent arrival of the Lezzwood Stagecoach, bringing with it the hope of new punters, much-needed custom and some rather more challenging choreography…
WATCH: “Brown Eyes Blue”
Dolly Partem is a wronged woman. Her poor heart is a-bustin’ and a-breakin’. So what choice does she have but to pour out her story in a good ole country ballad..? [kleenex at the ready, girls]:
Did you know..??
Annie Oakley – on whose story the stage show and film Annie Get Your Gun was based, was a pioneer of sexual equality and a real life sharpshooter until her death in Ohio, in 1926.
From the age of five, Annie [real name, Phoebe Ann Moses] had trapped birds and small animals to help supply food for her family. At about age seven, she tried using the old muzzle-loading gun that had belonged to her father in hopes of bagging even more game. She seemed, as she said, to have been born with shooting skill.
She was so good at shooting that she was able to help provide a living for her family and her reputation as a shooter began to grow. In 1875, when she was 15, she was invited to participate in a shooting contest in Cincinnati, against the well-known marksman Frank E Butler. He is reported to have laughed when he heard about his opponent. Annie, however, won the contest.
The two of them teamed up and travelled across the country, giving shooting exhibitions (with their dog, George, as an integral part of the act) before joining up with Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show in 1885. Annie is associated with the ‘Wild West’ to this day, although in reality she came from a farming family. Frank became her manager and they travelled throughout America and Europe for 17 years with the Wild West Show, of which Annie quickly became the star.
She befriended Sitting Bull, who symbolically adopted her and named her ‘Little Sure Shot’. She performed in front of Queen Victoria on a trip to Europe and King Umberto I of Italy. Annie continued to set shooting records until late in life and showed that she had lost none of her skills when she shot 100 clay targets in a row during a shooting contest at the age of 62.
Interestingly, Annie herself had a brief acting career when in 1902 she starred in a play especially written for her called ‘the Western Girl’. She played the character Nancy Berry who used a pistol, rifle and rope to outsmart a group of outlaws.
Throughout her career she campaigned for women’s rights and is thought to have taught more than 15,000 women how to use a gun as not only a form of physical and mental exercise but so they could defend themselves. Yeeehaah!
Sources: The Annie Oakley Centre Foundation; History website: Annie Oakley
Sources: The Annie Oakley Centre Foundation; History website: Annie Oakley
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