Actress Renee McFillin and director/choreographer Stephen Casey both earned Barrymore nominations for performances in “Sweet Charity” at the Montgomery Theater in 2024. Now, at Act II Playhouse, they team up once again in the classic musical “Annie Get Your Gun” (1946). The result is spectacular.

In real life, Frank Butler met Annie Oakley on Thanksgiving Day in 1875, when a Cincinnati hotel manager set up a sharpshooting contest. Annie won, and Butler was smitten. These two were happily married for 50 years, and Butler actively promoted Annie’s stardom over his own.

But, as Tolstoy observed, “happy families are all alike,” a state of affairs that does not lend itself to remarkable storytelling. So, in the musical book version of Annie’s life, Dorothy and Herbert Fields create a problem the true-life couple lacked: When Annie rises to stardom, Frank feels unmanned and breaks off their budding romance.

As Annie Oakley, Renee McFillin is a show by herself. She acts out her songs with an expressive soprano that honors Irving Berlin’s lyrics. Emotionally open, you always know what her Annie is feeling. In the opening scenes, Annie is a hayseed in brown buckskins who yearns for Frank Butler when she sings, “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun.”

Later, McFillin is lost but still hopeful in “I Got Lost In His Arms,” then playfully defiant when the lovers reunite. The intimate Act II theater suits McFillin perfectly, a vivacious presence full of facial expressions that would be lost in a larger venue. You wish it were you when she occasionally connects with an audience member with a confidential grimace, wink or nod.

As Frank Butler, Michael Isaac complements McFillin with his masculine presence and sonorous baritone. Other characters flesh out the musical. Eleni Delopoulos is her usual comic self as Dolly, the lovelorn loser. Kenneth De Abrew is droll as Sitting Bull. But in this cast of 10, every character winds up a foil for Annie Oakley’s dazzle, even Frank Butler.

The story aspect of “Annie Get Your Gun” is bare bones. Annie has a character arc of sorts, but the two lovers are psychologically implausible. With this type of musical, success comes down to spectacle, and in the Act II production, acting, song, dance and flashy ensemble numbers carry the day.

Stephen Casey’s choreography sets the show apart. With assistance from Janus Stefanowicz’s costume design, ensemble dance numbers have a balletic storytelling quality that supports the core action. When Frank Butler sings “My Defenses are Down,” the choreography underscores his bemused happiness. Now in tuxedoed attire at the ballroom, the ensemble backs up Annie’s resilience as she sings “I Got the Sun in the Morning.”

“Annie” is full of Irving Berlin songs that have leaped from music theater to become American standards; everyone has heard numbers like “The Girl That I Marry” and “Anything You Can Do.” Music director Dan Matarazzo thematically reprises “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” because “Annie Get Your Gun” is also a graceful show within a show.

Thanks to Parris Bradley’s scenic designs, you travel all over the world, by steam train and by boat, to fairgrounds, Europe and New York. Sporting a white 10-gallon hat, Buffalo Bill (Jeremy Konopka) announces each scene change. You think you are learning about the life of Annie Oakley until the idea dawns that you are actually watching one of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” shows.

Act II Playhouse is located at 56 E. Butler Pike in Ambler. “Annie Get Your Gun” will run through June 28. Tickets available at 215-654-0200 or at act2.org.