Hotshot Leanne hits the bull’s-eye
NDET 13-9-12 MC 11 Leanne Whitehouse as Annie in Annie Get Your Gun in Bolsover Drama Group's latest production.
Wild West legend Annie Oakley was a born hotshot but she wasn’t blessed with the best of looks.
Wild West legend Annie Oakley was a born hotshot but she wasn’t blessed with the best of looks.
Neither were Ethel Merman, Suzi Quatro and Jane Horrocks who have played the sharp-shooter in stage shows about her life.
Blowing apart any misconceptions that girls with guns can’t be pretty, Leanne Whitehouse, 30, of Shuttlewood, has her sights trained on putting her own mark on Little Sure Shot.
She stars in Bolsover Drama Group’s production of Annie Get Your Gun next week, playing opposite Nicky Constable as marksman Frank Butler
Ladylike and well turned out, it’s no contest as to which part of Annie’s life is the hardest for Leanne to portray. She said: “At the start, Annie is scruffy, rough around the edges and it has been a bit of a challenge not sitting with my legs crossed. She then tries to make herself into a lady for Frank, which is the easy part.”
Leanne, who teaches at Palterton Primary School, said: “I think the audience will like the show because everyone loves cowboys and songs that they know.”
Racking up her seventh and biggest lead role, Leanne is no newcomer to Annie Get Your Gun. She said: “The first time we did it I was about 12 and I played Minnie, one of Annie’s sisters. I remember we had to climb up two storeys of a train every night and sing four lines of Moonshine Lullaby.”
Her opposite number Nicky is looking forward to playing the role of Frank. He said: “I am really happy to have got this because it is the biggest part I have played and it is a straight part. I usually get comical roles.
“Frank is a dominant character who is unwilling to share the limelight, then Annie comes along and muscles in.”
Nicky, 27, works as a medical sales rep and joined the drama group five years ago. He is engaged to group member Keyleigh Hulett and will be tying the knot with her in July next year.
Just a fortnight after Nicky’s nuptials, leading lady Leanne will marry her fiancé Liam Collins.
Ever the joker, Nicky said: “We might run away together, then Liam can marry Keyleigh.”
Annie Get Your Gun runs at The Bolsover School from October 3 to 6 at 7.15pm with a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Tickets £8 and £7 (concession), call 01246 850402.
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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