Review of Calamity Jane at The Bristol Hippodrome Theatre

Posted on: 2014-10-22

Our rating:

This new touring production of Calamity Jane is rip-roaring, rambunctious, ebullient musical theatre of the highest order, a breezy, barnstorming jamboree and one of the best nights out you'll have all year.


 

Calamity Jane might be known to her friends as a lass who's a bit "careless with the truth", but if one's thing's for absolutely certain it's that The Watermill Theatre's production featuring our titular heroine is a hoedown-stomping, thigh-slapping, whip-cracking musical masterpiece.

Jodie Prenger - winner of BBC's I'd Do Anything and star of Oliver! and One Man Two Guvnors - is our buck-skin wearing, sharp-shooting firecracker, up to all sorts of shenanigans in Dakota until she's sent off to find an acting star for the Deadwood theatre. In this case, it's a burlesque temptress by the name of Adelaid Adams, but things take a somewhat tricky turn when Jane recruits Adelaid's maid by mistake - exacerbated by romantic complications when they both end up falling for the same man. 

Calamity Jane at The Bristol Hippodrome from 21-25 October 2014

Calamity Jane plays at the Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday 25 October. Book your tickets here

There's a plethora of wonderful, classic songs - The Deadwood Stage (Whip Crack-Away), The Black Hills of Dakota, Just Blew In From The Windy City - and the entire cast throw themselves into everything with infectiously enthusiastic abandon.

Prenger is simply superb as Calamity Jane: blonde, curvaceous, and an energetic, combustible mix of impulsive, hot-headed naivety and tomboyish dynamism who eventually gets in touch with her feminine side. It's a performance full of guts and glory, and her mezzo-soprano vocals (tainted with a hint of Dakota drawl) are so powerfully sublime they'll raise the hairs on the back of your neck. 

Emmerdale's Tom Lister plays Wild Bill Hickock and is true leading man material, carrying off the role with undeniable charm and gravitas, and hushing the audience into a subdued, almost reverential silence with a beautifully introspective performance of the ballad, Higher Than A Hawk.  

Phoebe Street as sassy ingénue Katie and musical director Rob Delaney as dancer Francis Fryer (and a virtuoso honky-tonk piano player) offer solid, though slightly underwritten, support, although Alex Hammond as Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin is for the most part so inconsequential you might not have even noticed he was there, saved only by the pleasing ballad in the second act, Love You Dearly.

But director Nikolai Foster clearly loves the genre and period of 1876 Wild West, fusing a charming balance between theatrical whimsy and realism and an innovative flair for stage invention. He's helped in no small way by designer Matthew Wright's spectacular multi-purpose big barn set, for the most part tinted in warm, nostaglic sepia hues which perfectly evoke the period.  

The cast and supporting players ostensibly act as a huge ensemble one-man-band,  utilizing on-set props as makeshift instruments as well as real ones (piano, flute, violin, double bass), infusing the whole spirit of the piece with a hearty, all-muck-in, low-down-and-dirty camaraderie that showcases their talents as singers, dancers and performers. Economy and versatility reign supreme here, making it a slightly offbeat, truly original show. 

This new touring production of Calamity Jane is rip-roaring, rambunctious, ebullient musical theatre of the highest order, a breezy, barnstorming jamboree and one of the best nights out you'll have all year.

You'll be singing, whip-cracking and Yeehaw-ing all the way home.  

5/5 

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol



Article by:

James Anderson

Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.