Original Screenplay: James O’Hanlon
Adapter: Charles K Freeman
Music: Sammy Fain
Lyrics: Paul Francis Webster
Director: Nikolai Foster
The three things we all remember of the film of Calamity Jane are Doris Day, Howard Keel and the scenery. In the stage version Carrie Hope Fletcher works hard (and with some success) to make us forget Ms Day, but Vinny Coyle makes comparatively little impact as Wild Bill Hickok and the Deadwood stage is represented by a piano, a most ingenious re-creation, but not like the real thing! The permanent set is the interior of the Golden Garter, attractive enough, but we have to make do with it for Calamity Jane’s house, the theatre in Chicago, etc.
The songs from the original film stand out for melody and the wit (somewhat cut) of their lyrics, but there are too many perfunctory little items that presumably were removed from the film before release. So what does the stage show offer in recompense? Oddly enough, the expertise of the cast as instrumentalists, building up a fine backing sound, letting ripe on hoedown numbers and – treat of treats – playing a four-hands duet on the piano as the Deadwood Stage speeds towards its destination.
Calamity Jane was conceived as an answer to the box office success of Annie Get Your Gun and anyone who has seen Annie Get Your Gun will know that by comparison it’s a flimsy piece of work, dependent on the magnetic personality and manic energy of Doris Day. They even cast Howard Keel again and gave the two a song (I Can Do Without You) on the model of Anything You Can Do.
Calamity Jane rides shotgun on the Deadwood Stage and has a habit of shooting off her six-gun. Her friend Henry Miller, boss of the Golden Garter, has hired a star performer Frances Fryer who in reality proves to be a man named Francis. In a burst of impetuous generosity, Calamity undertakes to go to Chicago and bring back the prospectors’ favourite star, Adelaid Adams. By the kind of error that might befall any gun-toting ingenue she brings back Adams’ maid Katie Brown who turns out to be rather good! So we settle to a second half in which both of Calamity’s beaux, Wild Bill and Lt. Gilmartin, fall for Katie, Calamity finds you can’t get a man with a gun (Annie Oakley again) and it all ends in mass-weddings.
Calamity Jane is a good night out owing to the energy and sharpness of the large cast and, above all, to the exuberance of Carrie Hope Fletcher. In a show that is built around her, she never loses her precision and attack, the harshness in her voice suitable to character, hitting her high notes with ease. She’s not as much fun as Doris Day, but who could be?
The remaining cast are workmanlike, but make limited individual impact. Seren Sandham-Davies is excellent at first as Katie, less so once A Woman’s Touch commits her to simpering nonentity. One advantage of the stage show is that it increases the part of Francis Fryer and Samuel Holmes, especially in partnership with Hollie Cassar as his dance partner Susan, is a joy in everything he does.
Runs until 3rd May 2025, before continuing on tour
