The 47th season will open with Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, as revised by Peter Stone for the most recent Broadway revival, which starred Bernadette Peters. The Goodspeed staging will play April 16-June 27 at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT. Rob Ruggiero (Ella and Looped) will direct. Goodspeed favorite Noah Racey (Broadway's Never Gonna Dance and Curtains) will choreograph. Ruggiero directed Goodspeed's 1776, Big River and Camelot; he's directing Looped for Broadway at the moment.

Goodspeed confirmed on Feb. 16 that Gambatese was in negotiations to play Annie. Additional casting will be announced in coming weeks.

On Broadway, Gambatese played tomboy Ed in All Shook Up, English explorer Jane in Tarzan and a menagerie of plucky forest creatures in A Year With Frog and Toad. Her additional Broadway credits include Is He Dead?, Hairspray and Footloose.

Herbert and Dorothy Fields wrote the libretto, based on the story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Stone revised the script in order to smooth out the dated, rough edges. The score includes "There's No Business Like Show Business," "I Got the Sun in the Morning," "Anything You Can Do" and more.

Ruggiero's creative team, Playbill.com learned, will include Michael Schweikardt (set design), Alejo Vietti (costume design) and John Lasiter (lighting design). Additional members of the production team will be announced. For tickets and information, call (860) 873-8668 or visit www.goodspeed.org.

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"Dedicated to the preservation and advancement of musical theatre," Goodspeed Musicals produces three musicals each season at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, and additional productions at The Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT, which was opened in 1984 for the development of new musicals. The only regional theatre to receive two Tony Awards (for outstanding achievement), Goodspeed also maintains The Scherer Library of Musical Theatre and The Max Showalter Center for Education in the Musical Theater.