Calamity Jane

It always makes for a good show when the people on stage are smiling and obviously enjoying themselves, this makes the audience enjoy it more and this was the case with this show, all the cast were enjoying themselves which filtered out to the auditorium.

Calamity Jane is a rip-roaring musical with plenty of hit songs which the majority of people will know and want to sing along to and this is exactly what they got this evening, a rip roaring show with good principals, chorus and dancers.

The show of course revolves around the principal lady and title of the show Calamity Jane who was played by Belinda Lindley who gave it her all; she owned the stage and made this part her own. Belinda may not be very tall in stature but she was certainly tall in terms of playing this leading part.

Calamity Jane was not blessed  with many admirers at the start of the show but ended up with the leading man, Wild Bill Hickock,  played by David Cooper whose singing wowed the audience especially in the moving “Higher than a Hawk” and also in his duet with Jane, “I can do without you”.

Jane travels to Chicago in search of Adelaide Adams, the sweetheart of all the men back in Deadwood, she thinks she has found her but instead she has found Katie Brown who is the maid of Adelaide. Fran Winter did a very good job of playing Katie, rising from the timid maid to the full blown cabaret performer and eventual wife of Lieut. Danny Gilmartin played by Pete Mason.

Of course when the men in Deadwood find out Jane has brought the wrong person they are not very pleased but they soon come round when they hear Katie sing.They have been fooled before when Henry Miller, the hotel owner, played to perfection by Martyn Lees, tries to fool them with another entertainer in the form of Francis Fryer played by Robert Flewitt, his rendition of “Hive full of Honey” was so funny and he did make a very good “lady”.

Francis ends up falling in love with Susan, the niece of Henry Miller, played by Charlotte Woodward who does a very good job of keeping the peace with both Henry and Francis. Charlotte was so sweet in this part having just the right temperament to get the most out of it.

The dancers must be praised in this production, all of them, as the rest of the cast, smiling and performing their routines to perfection although I personally feel it would have been good if they had been a little more integrated into the show rather than appearing for a number and doing their routine, but that is a personal thought.

Thank you for a great evening.

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