Patrick Cassidy to Replace Brian Stokes Mitchell in Ravinia’s Annie Get Your Gun

Patrick Cassidy will replace the previously reported Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler in the Ravinia Festival’s production of Annie Get Your Gun, August 13-15. Lonny Price will direct, and Paul Gemignani will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the show. Mitchell has withdrawn due to a scheduling conflict.

Cassidy joins previously announced Tony Award winners Patti LuPone as Annie Oakley and George Hearn as Buffalo Bill Cody.
With music and lyrics written by Irving Berlin, and a book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun tells the fictionalized tale of the sharpshooter whose talent led her to a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the 1880s. The score includes such classics as “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything You Can Do” and “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun.”

Cassidy is currently appearing in the Dallas Theatre Center’s production of It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman!. The actor previously starred as Frank Butler in the 1999-2001 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun. His other Broadway credits include Aida, 42nd Street, Leader of the Pack, and The Pirates of Penzance. He also starred in the ABC Family series Ruby and the Rockits, a musical sitcom in which he played a 1970s rocker turned used-car salesman. Films include Longtime Companion and I’ll Do Anything. He’s also created a one-man show about his experiences growing up in an acting dynasty.

For additional theater-related highlights at Ravinia, see our previous story.

For more information about the Festival, visit www.ravinia.org.