Doubt there was ever a time when hard, wild, drinking women who lived outside of what society expected were considered desirable. Now, put the image of that woman dressed like a man (guns and all) in the second part of the 19th century Dakota and imagine her life. Exciting, right?
While Calamity Jane was quite well-known for her relationship with the American folk hero ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, she had plenty going for herself: the only woman worker on the Northern Pacific Railroad, gambler, driver and a colourful storyteller who liked to (but probably didn’t need to) slightly exaggerate. In this production directed by Nikolai Foster, we’re invited for a wild and fun ride to witness Calamity getting herself into yet another pickle when she promises to bring a famous actress to the dead-end of Deadwood. There’s no way she can deliver on that promise. Or can she?
Carrie Hope Fletcher is a delightful, cutely-trying-to-be-dangerous Calamity Jane, easily breathing modern life into this fascinating character. While the story is about so much more than Calamity, it allows plenty of space to build up chemistry between Calamity and Wild Bill, here played by the understudy Tomas Wolstenholme whose confident ownership of the role made him constantly stand out on the stage. So, while the first part seems mainly focused on setting the scene with cute sing-alongs and impressive dances by the cast, Nick Winston’s choreography and direction with Catherine Jayes’ musical supervision, serve to nicely warm up the audience. The fact that this is the original adaptation with already composed lyrics, music and screenplay based on the 1953 musical helps those familiar with it to start singing immediately, but, in all honesty, it probably could do with a bit of refresh.
The story really picks up after the interval, with the Deadwood world still evolving around the mainly static saloon where Seren Sandham-Davies shines as Katie Brown. Supported by side stories and appearances by cast, it’s really easy to get into the story and cheer for, as well as with everyone. Samuel Holmes is a hysterical Francis Fryer and seems to genuinely be having the most fun.
As someone who hasn’t seen the Doris Day film (I will get on that ASAP), I did hope for a bit more actual boot kicking and cowboying kind of an evening. While this production was fun and child-friendly, it definitely is more wild-less than the wild ‘Calam’ whose story seems to have been softened for everyone’s but her sake. It seems almost ironic that just as Calam liked to colour some of her life events, now her own life ends up being more and more caricatured. Perhaps this is only proof that the world was never truly ready for the real Calamity Jane.
Calamity Jane is currently running at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until 19th April 2025
Performance reviewed 15/04/2025
