REVIEW: Calamity Jane at Mayflower Theatre

What’s the latest musical that’s whip-crackin’ its way into Mayflower Theatre I hear you ask? Well I’ll be damned - if it isn’t ‘Calamity Jane’ as she roles on through Southampton! We’re turning back the clocks a little bit, to this musical debuting back in 1961 - adapted from the very famous 1953 musical film of the same name starring a certain Miss Doris Day. Now we all know that movie to stage adaptations can be a bit hit or miss. But when that movie was already a musical movie, I think this takes away half off the stress and pressure in creating something that has so much stage potential already. This style of movie lends itself very well to the stage, especially when we look at the age of the story. However, does some of the theming and language in scripting need to be altered? Possibly.

This is what I would describe as a classic musical. Old school set and design, old school costumes, and old school music. Full disclosure, I had never actually seen the movie before seeing this show - I was coming in completely blind, and I’m glad to say that I wasn’t lost with the story at all. Adapted for the stage by Charles K Freeman and directed by Nikolai Foster, they have portrayed the energy and movement of the movie perfectly on the stage. I particularly liked the way the ‘travelling’ was portrayed - but a little more on this later. I was also a massive fan of the actor-musician aspect of the show. For those of you that don’t know, an actor-musician is when the actors on stage are also playing the musical instruments that we are hearing. Incredibly satisfying to watch and hear!

As a brief rundown of the story, we follow the fearless gun-slinging ‘Calamity Jane’, the biggest mouth in Dakota. But will that mouth get her into trouble when this time she has to stick to her word and bring back the most famous actress Chicago and Deadwood have ever seen? This touring cast was very impressive. Like I’ve already said, the actor-musician aspect was amazing. Seeing the cast carry their instruments around, whilst singing, and acting? These guys are far more than triple threats! Heading the cast as ‘Calamity Jane’ is the wonderful Carrie Hope Fletcher. She was just fantastic! If there is one thing about Carrie, it’s that she can carry a stage presence and sell tickets. Her vocals were phenomenal! As her love interest, ‘Wild Bill Hickock’ was Vinny Coyle. His character presence was fantastic. One of my favourite musical numbers in this show was Bill’s slower ballad type song (unfortunately I can’t remember the name of it, apologies!). Luke Wilson and Seren Sandham-Davies were great as both ‘Danny Gilmartin’ and ‘Katie Brown’. Their use of irony was fantastic and you could really sense their bond with a range of characters throughout the story. I would also like to give a big shoutout to Samuel Holmes who played the role of ‘Francis Fryer’. He was hilarious! Every time he walked onto the stage he got a laugh. Not even in necessarily what he was saying, but the way he was holding himself - the little glances or body movements! Sensational performance!

When it comes to the set and design, as I said previously, it was a very aesthetically pleasing and grand set. It basically showed a stage within a stage. It was the theatre of Deadwood that looked like an old Western bar. As well as the theatre, the set also needed to portray a multitude of other places. The only problem was, this was a fixed set. With the set being period accurate, although it may have looked impressive, it wasn’t awfully dynamic. Yes there was lots of movement around the stage from the actors and musicians, but the main bulk of the set and lighting stayed exactly the same. One thing I did think was very impressive, was the way win which they would travel to these different locations. They would basically build up random pieces of the set; I’m taking tables, chairs, pulling random wheels off the wall - and then they would build this up and shudder up and down to portray a horse and cart. To take it the step further, you had the coconut halves to sound like the hooves of the horses pulling these carts. Really imaginative and clever. Looking back on it, there also were no/very few black outs during the whole show. I think this is where the dynamic effect comes in because lots happens without the actors even leaving the stage.

On the music front, I’ve already mentioned how impressive the actor-musicians are, but there was also a percussionist and musical director/keys player off stage. Live music in a musical really ties the whole thing together, and it’s done it here as well. Because you can actually see what’s being played as well, it makes it even more impressive and immersive. A lot of the songs are very repetitive and sound quite similar, but like I mentioned earlier, with this being adapted from the movie musical from the 50s - musically, not much has changed when being brought over to the stage. I mentioned earlier about how some of the theming/scripting may be a bit dated now. There is a a lot of mention to gender stereotypes between male and female - and sometimes, this touches very close to the line for 2025. Now I completely understand that this is a story from the 50s where things were different, but I wonder if maybe they could’ve potentially changed the scripting slightly?

Overall, ‘Calamity Jane’ is a very impressive musical. There is so much to look at, and so much energy on that stage that it feels like planned chaos. To repeat myself again, this feels like a classic musical. I went into this musical blind, and can easily say that I was not lost once and the story actually really surprised me. You can tell why this is a classic! The music is fantastic, and the casting is excellent. ‘Calamity Jane’ is at Mayflower Theatre until the 7th June before continuing on its UK Tour. Catch it whilst you can before they whip-crack their way out of Southampton.