Calamity Jane Review

I don’t know if it is nostalgia playing tricks with me or if there really was a season of Doris Day movies on BBC2 back in the late seventies, but either way I remember vividly sitting on our old brown, striped sofa, wee sister (middle name Jane; how we loved that) by my side, watching on as Calamity Jane sprung into life, all guns a-blazing and feet a-stamping. It is my first real memory of a musical and one of my favourite films of all time.

So, when I heard the stage show was coming to Horsecross my first reaction was ‘Whip Crack Away, we must get tickets!’ My second, ‘Oh Hell No!” I mean, how can you possibly top Doris? Well, as it turns out, with rootin-tootin ease!

For those of you who don’t know the story (where have you been, where?!), Calamity Jane is a gun-slinging, hide-wearing, crazy woman who’s carrying a flame for the dashing Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin. After a misunderstanding fails to secure the stage star Adelaide Adams, and instead sees Calamity bring home the pretty Katy Brown, an aspiring actress, chaos ensues. However, Katy’s talents win over the hearts of the town, particularly those of Danny and Wild Bill Hickok. Cue jealously, rage and three different proposals… but I’ll leave you to find out who ends up with who!

The show’s five-night run at Perth’s Concert Hall is part of a touring production by the Watermill Theatre. The Wild West Saloon set draws you in instantly and within seconds the cast are full swing into Whip Crack Away and has the audience in the palm of their thigh-slapping hands.

The production has everything you want from musical theatre and a large jug of sarsaparilla to wash it all down with. The acting is so damn good I was cheering on Katy Brown’s first performance at the Golden Garter as though she really were the underdog; forgetting that it was far from the talented Sophia Ragavelas’s first time in front of an audience!

I am always amazed at the multi-talented stars of musicals and the entire cast are faultless as they sing, dance and act their way through all of your favourite numbers. I had all but forgotten the wonderful ‘I Can Do Without You’ and the geniusly good ‘Careless With The Truth’ (as a lover of stories, I’d never tell a lie, but I have no issues with anyone getting careless with the truth!). Musical instruments are thrown around the stage as effortlessly as the broom swept through Calamity’s cabin and with a double bass, fiddles and stand-up piano all part of the production, you will be tapping your boots and bobbing your Stetson from the off.

The best surprise of the night though, was the spotless comic timing of the cast, in particular, from Jodie Prenger who plays Calamity herself. You’ll know Jodie as the popular winner of BBC's I'd Do Anything, and her cackling ‘tee hee hee’ when she wins one over on her arch enemy / sweetheart Bill Hickok and the rest of the Golden Garter clientele is infectious. There were many, many uproarious moments from the audience, but my personal favourite was Francis Fleming’s bad-drag stint and his realisation that Calamity had brought back Adam’s maid.

I grinned all the way through this show, singing, clapping, cheering on the weddings as though it were my friends getting married. The whoops and whistles that came as Calamity’s Gun shot out 'The End' was worthy of every one of the ten minutes they lasted and the standing ovation that followed. The final hoe-down around the Golden Garter had me planning a Saturday afternoon on the couch with Doris, in a bid to re-live every last song.

If you don’t have tickets for this show, call Horsecross now and hope you can rustle up the remaining few. It is quite simply one of the best shows I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.

***

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