Cheryl, Get Your Gun
Cheryl Ladd is best known for her role as the sexy crime fighter Kris Munroe on the hit '70s television series Charlie's Angels. But she has a new assignment now, starring on Broadway in Annie, Get Your Gun.
Playing Annie Oakley has been a dream of Ladd's since she was six years old. She's 49 now.
"My very first dance recital that I did when I was seven years old was Doing What Comes Naturally," says Ladd. "My mother tells me, when I saw the movie, that I was Annie Oakley for days and days and weeks and weeks on end. She's just a character I've related to so much. And I guess…I feel like I am Annie Oakley in a way: small-town girl going to the big city and just -- I love her sensibility. She's just the most honest person."
Annie, Get Your Gun was first produced on Broadway in 1946, with music by Irving Berlin and book and lyrics by Herbert and Dorothy Fields. It starred Ethel Merman, who reprised the role for a 1967 television production. Annie was also played in a 1957 telecast by Mary Martin, and in the movie version by Betty Hutton.
Ladd says that playing on Broadway has been "amazingly scary and wonderful."
"Whenever you live out a lifelong dream, you always hope it would be what you hoped it would be," Ladd says.
She only had three weeks' rehearsal.
"I sort of jumped right off a cliff. About halfway through, I thought, 'What have I done?' But now I'm okay. Now we've been doing it about a week and Sunday night we just had a spectacular show. It went well. All the shows have been good but I just felt like Sunday night I started to own it."
She doesn't find it hard to make Annie different from the way Bernadette Peters did it.
"I don't think you can help but make it different," said Ladd. "The writing is so excellent that each person brings their own personality no matter what. My Annie is quite different than Bernadette's. I can't tell you how but my personality is in it."
Some people are surprised that the erstwhile "Charlie's Angel" can sing. But she points out that she first went to California as a singer with a band, and her first regular television job was the singing voice of Melody, the blonde pussycat for the first season of the animated Josie And The Pussycats.
Ladd says she's looking forward to the Charlie's Angel movie which is coming out November 3.
"I can't wait to see it. I'm a huge Drew Barrymore fan. I did Poison Ivy with her. But I think the movie is going to be really fun."
Ladd signed up to do Annie Get Your Gun for six months, until the end of January.
"I only signed up for six months because I really didn't know if would love it, since it was such a new experience for me. But I'll tell you what, it's -- right now, it's been my favorite job I've ever had.
"Annie Oakley is an extraordinary character to play, one of the greatest characters written for thstage. And the songs, Irving Berlin's songs, to be able to sing those, is great."