Whatever it is for you, the first, most electric thing that comes to my mind about "Annie Get Your Gun" is the score -- more than a half-dozen of Irving Berlin's best songs, including two certified immortals, here enhanced by Pittsburgh CLO's fine, honest-to-God 24-piece pit orchestra.

Sure, the show also has all that endearing cornball Americana about Buffalo Bill, Chief Sitting Bull and the circus atmosphere of the wild west show. And there's the eternal gender war, with Annie Oakley and Frank Butler standing in for Beatrice and Benedict, Amanda and Eliot and those other amatory pugilists for whom the sparks that fly testify to the heat of the passion they conceal.

In fact, the title might as well be "Annie Get Your Man" -- she's already got the gun.

But those two centers of interest pair up perfectly with the two immortal songs: "There's No Business Like Show Business" for the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd, and "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" for the erotic sparring. You don't even need to know "Annie Get Your Gun" to know those songs, so interwoven are they with our popular culture. But heard in their original context, their dust is blown off and they emerge with their passion fresh and barbs sharp.

Show biz and love -- that's what the American musical is all about, right? (Think "Gypsy," "Chorus Line" and a thousand others.) And maybe theater in general. And life, too.

OK, I'm getting carried away. But that's what it's like to have a seductive Irving Berlin score cycling through your head. The jaunty syncopation of "I Got the Sun in the Morning (and the Moon at Night)" is what's on automatic mental replay just now, but it could also be "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" or "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" for cornball comedy or "The Girl That I Marry" or "They Say It's Wonderful" for lilting romance.

The show's other chief selling point is Annie herself, as the list of stars who've tackled her over the years testifies (we had an impressive list in Sunday's paper). Here, the CLO is in the very best of hands with Jenn Colella, a name you may not know, who delivers a sassy, funny performance you can't resist.

The CLO's Van Kaplan says they were angling for a big name for Annie but Colella just blew them away in audition, and she does that in performance, too. It's the ease of her comedy I most admire, the confident detail of her pointed (but not excessive) reactions even when the ball's in someone else's hands.

Matthew Ashford, best known for his soap opera credits, is a handsome, capable Frank Butler, a worthy adversary who helps (as the show requires) Annie to shine. Paula Legget Chase is fine as the comic villain, Dolly, and Andrew Cao and Savannah Wise are cute as dancing kittens as the inevitable young lovers.

There's a crackerjack old school second banana performance by Joel Blum as the Wild West Show's functionary, Charlie Davenport, and Patrick Boll is a statuesque and amiable Buffalo Bill. Tim Brady doubles with curmudgeonly effect as a hotel operator and Pawnee Bill. Special kudos to the three kids, played charmingly by Michelle Coben, Sidney Popielarcheck and Ben Nadler.

I admit I've lost track of all the changes this show has undergone since its 1946 debut. I'd forgotten it isn't just about a show (Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show) within a show, but actually frames itself as a show about all that, with Davenport announcing scene changes.

As I remember, the musical used to have a clunky book that kept us from getting to those great songs, but it's been slimmed down to about two hours and 10 minutes, with a major assist from the fluid sets, rented but cleverly adapted by Anne Mundell.

I admit I sort of miss the old "I'm an Indian, Too" comic number, but I can see why it's gone. I discovered some songs anew: the sweet "Moonshine Lullabye" sung by Annie, her young siblings and a cowboy trio, and Annie's yearning Act 2 ballad, "I Got Lost in His Arms."

The slickness and ease of the opening night performance is testament to the skills of director Charles Repole, and choreographer John MacInnis makes good use of that dependable CLO asset, the willing, winsome and flexible ensemble. To think that many of them will morph into Sharks and Jets in just two weeks.