CALAMITY Jane was a real-life sharp shooting frontierswoman and storyteller whose exploits – along with those of the Wild West Legend Wild Bill Hickok – got made into a smash hit musical film starring Doris Day in 1953.
The screenplay for that film was adapted for the stage by Charles K Freeman and first performed in the intimacy of the Watermill theatre in 2014.
This 2025 tour production, currently on stage at the Birmingham Hippodrome, is a revival of the original. It was directed then and now by Nikolai Foster – here, along with co-director and choreographer Nick Winston.
Matthew Wright’s set is a largescale version of his original at the Watermill – where the stage becomes a second auditorium with opera boxes looking down onto the stage and there’s a another stage with its own proscenium down stage centre. It is, in a nutshell, a theatre within a theatre and a stage within a stage.
Picture – Birmingham Hippodrome. sMany of the highly talented cast also double as musicians with instruments literally strapped to them. Everything is smooth and pretty much flawless with some creatively excellent set piece scenes, such as the Deadwood Stage being made of an assembly of actors, chairs and barrels rather than an actual stagecoach.
Carrie Hope Fletcher really gives her all as Calamity and her charisma along with her energy and talent carry the show a long way. Her rendition of the classic ‘Secret Love’ is a high point drawing well-earned cheer.
Seren Sandham-Davies also shines as Katie Brown the maid who comes to Deadwood pretending to be her superstar mistress – then actually becomes the stage queen of Deadwood when she confesses all and the hill-billy locals take her to their hearts.
Picture – Birmingham Hippodrome. sVinny Coyle makes a cool handsome dude as Wild Bill Hickok – likewise does Luke Wilson as soldier boy Danny Gilmartin, the other love interest.
The best thing about the show is quite rightly the songbook and there are certainly some classics to get the toes tapping. In truth, the story takes an age to kick in – just tinkering not storytelling – and when it does, the love chase between the key players is not enough of a plot on its own.
Calamity Jane is not certainly not a calamity but more a pleasant than sensational night’s theatre,. An excellent cast, slick production and good musical arrangements can’t quite make up for the lacklustre book- or take the show to the next level.
Picture – Birmingham Hippodrome. sI surmise that its success first time round was down to subtlety and intimacy in a small space which at the moment is lost on the big stage.
The hoe-down walkdown at the end certainly sent everyone home with smiles on their faces though.
Calamity Jane runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday, March 22. Click here for times, tickets and more information.
