CALAMITY JANE
Tue 28 Apr – Sat 2 May
Eves 7.45pm Wed, Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm
Review
The show started a few minutes late after actor Paul Kissaun suddenly withdrew at the last moment to be replaced by the able Justin Wilman.
The stage was a bar, or rather saloon as the Americans call it, in Cowboy era USA.
The real Calamity Jane was born in 1852 and her family joined the wagon train to Deadwood in North Dakota (although now in South Dakota) in 1863. As a teenager she went riding and shooting and must have driven her parents to despair before finally splitting from then. In 1870 she met Wild Bill Hickok and married him and later gave birth to a daughter who she gave up to adoption.
A real character of the Wild West she died in 1903 and was buried next to Wild Bill in Deadwood.
Jodie Prenger plays Calamity Jane alongside an excellent Tom Lister as Will Bill Hickok and the show opens with plenty of songs before Calamity makes a memorable visit to Chicago with a fabulous scene of her travelling by stage and railway train.
She returns with Katie Brown, Phoebe Street, who does a brilliant dance and singing routine and then romance rears its head with love, laughter and jealousy before ending with wedding bells.
The show was just the right length to keep the packed house on its toes with prolonged clapping when the curtain finally fell on this jolly, cheerful and entertaining show.
A good evening out.
Original preview
Yeeha! Theatre Royal Brighton is delighted to present a brand new production of the classic musical Calamity Jane, starring the much loved Jodie Prenger. The show runs from Tue 28 Apr-Sat 2 May and an additional matinee has been added on Wednesday to meet demand.
Calamity Jane can outrun and outshoot any man in Deadwood. Hard, boastful and desperate to impress, she travels to Chicago to recruit a star, Adelaide Adams, for the Deadwood Stage. But things don’t go too smoothly for Calamity, as everyone in town favours the new girl and she struggles to keep her jealousy and pride in check. It takes her long-standing enemy Wild Bill Hickok to make her see sense, and realise her Secret Love…
CALAMITY JANE has an Oscar nominated score that includes The Black Hills of Dakota, The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), Just Blew in from the Windy City and the award winning song Secret Love.
Jodie Prenger is probably best known for winning the role of Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh’s West End production of Oliver! through the BBC television series I’d Do Anything. During her run in the show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane she received both critical and public acclaim for her portrayal of the role. Since then she has starred in the National Theatre’s hit production of One Man, Two Guvnors both in the West End and on tour and as Lady of the Lake in Spamalot. Jodie is also a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2.
Jodie stars alongside Tom Lister. Tom is probably best known to TV audiences for his role as Carl King in ITV’s Emmerdale, a part he played for nine years.
They are joined by a talented cast of actor musicians.
CALAMITY JANE is directed by Nikolai Foster, with Orchestrations and Musical Supervision by Catherine Jayes, Choreography by Nick Winston, Set and Costume design by Matthew Wright, Lighting Design by Richard G Jones and Sound Design by Sebastian Frost.
Nikolai Foster was recently named as the new artistic director at Curve in Leicester. His most recent theatre credits include The Witches of Eastwick, Annie and the 20th Anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing in the West End.
CALAMITY JANE is adapted for the stage by Charles K. Freeman and has music by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.
www.atgtickets.com/brighton (bkg fees apply)
0844 871 7650 (bkg fees apply)
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