The fictional take on the already hard-to-believe life of Calamity Jane started out as a 1953 Technicolor screen blockbuster, giving us one of Doris Day’s most enduring performances. It was adapted for the stage in 1961 in a version that has become a vehicle for stars from Carol Burnett to Barbara Windsor, and from Lynda la Plante to Toyah Willcox.
This touring production directed by Nikolai Foster was first produced by the Watermill Theatre in 2014 with Jodie Prenger in the title role, and this revival and second tour now stars the extraordinary Carrie Hope Fletcher as ‘Calam’.
The stage version fairly faithfully follows the film’s original narrative, whilst adding five extra songs and a good half hour to the running time. It’s fair to say that neither 1950s Hollywood nor early ‘60s musical theatre cared much about political correctness, and some elements of the storyline don’t quite pass muster for a 21st century audience. So it is that Foster and his team have had to cut quite a lot of dead wood from the stage before it comes rolling back over them plains. Quite a lot of inappropriate cultural references have been (occasionally coyly) erased from the text, while the thrust of several of the musical numbers has been coaxed into a somewhat less sexist telling, giving back rather more control to several of the female characters. There’s no avoiding the fact that Calamity loses the chaps and dons a dress to woo her suitor, but this reading of the tale certainly goes a long way towards balancing the power game that’s going on.
The main story of course is more of a love square-dance than love triangle. Calamity and her new-found friend Katie Brown (with whom she just blew in from the Windy City in a calamitous occurrence of mistaken identity) find themselves doing a sort of dosey-doe with Calamity’s long time friend Wild Bill Hickok and Danny Gilmartin, for whom she harbours a not-so secret love. Hearts and friendships look to be on the verge of being broken, when a few well aimed gunshots play substitute for cupid’s arrows leading to a tootin’ fine double wedding.
It’s surprising, then, that there is remarkably little for Luke Wilson, who plays Danny Gilmartin, to do in this staging. Vinny Coyle gets the lion’s share of the male stage time in the central quartet, and he gives great voice to his songs, especially in the Act II opener ‘Higher Than a Hawk’. Seren Sandham-Davies shows huge charm as Katie Brown, and she has great success negotiating the transformation from a shy maid pretending to be someone she ain’t into a confident stage performer. Meanwhile, Molly-Grace Cutler gives a splendid cameo as the doyenne of the Chicago music hall Adelaide Adams.
It is however Carrie-Hope Fletcher who all eyes and ears are upon here, and she is a mighty fine choice for the role. Fletcher belts out both ensemble and solo numbers with just the right balance of punch and poignancy, and she succeeds (with the help of excellent costume design) in bringing us a blend of the romanticised version of Calamity Jane and the real frontierswoman she is based upon.
Those costumes and the set are designed by Matthew Wright, who captures the dusty small town feel of Deadwood in a single box-like enclosure that also features a smaller music-hall stage to its rear as well as galleries to each side that provide space for the various actor-musicians to perform when not engaged in the action. All of this is bounded by a false proscenium which occupies about three-quarters of the width of the Empire’s stage. This decision to retain the scale of the touring set rather than broadening it out for the larger venues avoids diluting the action, and there is no sense in which this unashamedly compact staging ever feels swamped by the auditorium.
Placing the bulk of the musicians in full view and including them in the acting company enhances the sense of community in the company numbers, while adding extra visual interest to the stage.
The stage version gives greater weight to the character of Francis Fryer than was accorded to him in the film’s screenplay, and he is given more of a back-story and ongoing involvement in the narrative. This perhaps steals stage time that might have been accorded to Danny Gilmartin, but it does offer a great opportunity for Samuel Holmes, who brings both wit and charm to his portrayal of the put-upon Fryer.
Like many a stage show, Calamity Jane takes a while warming up the horses before it breaks into a trot, but once it gets going it canters along nicely. Those members of the audience who feel the need to sing along are deftly marshalled into line by being given the opportunity to join in with (and only with) ‘The Black Hills of Dakota’, which also gets a reprise at the end, so that’s the only number you need to swot up on the lyrics for folks!
Calamity Jane is at Liverpool Empire until 26th April and then continues its 30-venue tour with dates booking through to September.
Star rating: 4 stars
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| Carrie Hope Fletcher and the cast of Calamity Jane - © Mark Senior |
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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