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REVIEW | Calamity Jane, UK & Ireland Tour - Sheffield Lyceum Theatre
- Harry Brogan
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
The classic rooting tooting western musical is back in Sheffield. This production of the classic musical, Calamity Jane, was first seen by audiences back in 2014 at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury starring Jodie Prenger as the title role, now it is currently on a UK and Ireland tour with Carrie Hope Fletcher stepping into the role.
Calamity Jane follows Calamity, who is always ready for anything, especially a fight and messing with Best Friend Wild Bill Hickok, and when someone arrives in town, Deadwood in Dakota, a new star in the name of Adelaide Adams to perform, Calamity suddenly starts to feel the jealousy and her heart to starts beat differently and her eyes start looking for what or who?
Adapted for the stage by Charles K Freeman, with music Sammy Fain and Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, Calamity Jane is directed Nikolai Foster and co-directed and choreographed by Nick Winston.
Nikolai Foster and Nick Winston guide the show with good direction and excellent choreography, Foster and Winston's direction is good and pleasing to watch delivered by a great cast which includes actor-musicians on stage. Though while majority of the duration the show brings a nice atmosphere bringing a feel of a hoedown throw down type feel, it does bring (personally) an awkward feeling with the performers being on stage during tense and heartfelt moments with them watching the action as well as then suddenly walking off. This transition makes it slightly hard to focus on what we really should be focusing on from time to time. However, Foster and Winston do a great job of transforming pianos, chairs and various other set pieces into moving trains, and horse carriages, which felt like a nice nod to the original 1953 Doris Day film. But unfortunately for me personally there was an over-riding sense of energy that was missing, with the shows pacing falling short occasionally, though yes the pace does pick up in places, it doesn't really fully pick up enough until the big cast numbers, and songs that the audience love. Having said that Foster and Winston create moments of comedy and likableness between Calamity and Bill Hickok (Carrie Hope Fletcher and Vinny Coyle) which brilliantly shows the pairs love and hate relationship. They also create an excellent atmosphere inside Deadwood's busy theatre/bar which is nice to see, while also creating tension between Calamity and other characters.
While the direction is mixed and previously mentioned the energy struggles, Winston's work picks up within the choreography, Winston creates enjoyable choreography, creating joyful and energetic work that uplifts the atmosphere throughout that puts a smile on your face.
Adapted for the stage originally in 1961 by Charles K Freeman from the original film Freeman creates a nice story to tell the audience about the historical figure, and this is a good stage to screen adaption, understandably, it isn't always possible to be historically accurate about the real life of Calamity, but Freeman's book brings likability for the audience which allows us to somewhat slightly imagine Calamity's life. Unfortunately Freeman's book isn't complex enough to really get into the show fully, it sits more on the easy to watch side of enjoyment. Freeman writes funny moments, nice relationships between characters as well as the characters being nicely written which the audience will enjoy.
The music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster are a definite joy, with them being toe-tapping, and clap-along full throughout from the start. With the favourites like 'Just Blew In From The Windy City' the shows opener 'Deadwood stage' and 'Black hills of Dakota' to then the excellent ballad of 'Secret Love', all prove to be favourites by the audience. Other than the already known songs, the show has a mix of fun and slow numbers, which adds to the collection of well-known classics, creating a nice classic musical sound.
Carrie Hope Fletcher takes the title role of Calamity Jane. Fletcher's performance is great, full of comedy, brilliant interactions between Vinny Coyle and of course vocals that are wowing when singing 'Secret Love'. Fletcher performs a loving and funny Calamity, and is a joy to watch, while also leading the cast and also actor-musicians with nice energy, character, personality, and finally stage presence.
Taking on the role of Wild Bill Hickok is Vinny Coyle, Coyle a good character for Wild Bill Hickok and Coyle slightly creates to me what is a stern character for Bill, and nice juxtapose to Fletcher's Calamity. Coyle's vocals are nice to hear and are skilled throughout, Coyle is makes a great performance of Wild Bill Hickok.
There are also notable performances from Samuel Holmes being funny and sweet as Francis Fryer, Luke Wilson as Danny Gilmartin playing a likeable love interest between two characters (not spoiling) and finally Seren Sandham-Davies delivering great vocals. I do want to mention the shows actor-musicians who play instruments and form a really good part of the company.
With a set design by Matthew Wright, Wright's design creates a nice western feel to the show, and transforms the stage to fit the shows period as well as Wright's quality costume.
Calamity Jane is a musical that I can admire, the whole cast take on the choreography, music and script excellently well. The songs, delightful. The choreography, wonderful. It's an admired attempt to bring a classic musical for a modern day theatre audience that unfortunately doesn't fully hit all the marks.
★★★.5
Calamity Jane plays at the Sheffield Lyceum until Saturday 14th of June, before continuing its UK and Ireland tour until 27th of September.
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