What we thought of Calamity Jane at Sunderland Empire

Set during America’s gold rush, and based on the 1953 movie of the same name starring Doris Day, Calamity Jane is a show with a more traditional feel than most on tour at the moment. It’s an escape to a simpler time of cowboys, prospectors, vaudeville, and whatever ‘The American Dream’ meant to those at the time.

This UK tour stars well-known West End star Carrie Hope Fletcher, who has starred in Les Mis, Cinderella, and Heathers. She brings the air of a star like Doris Day, but one from the digital age. As such, crowds will have differing experiences of her performances – younger audiences will recognise her name and the way she sells tickets based on her credits. An older audience member may not recognise the name and will see in Fletcher a youthful and energetic performer.

Fletcher’s Calamity is first and foremost a great storyteller and there is something enrapturing about the way in which she draws her fellow cast members into the tales she is spinning in numbers like ‘Careless With the Truth’ and the iconic ‘Just Blew in from the Windy City’.

(Image: Mark Senior) She is at her best when interacting with Vinny Coyle’s Wild Bill Hickok. The two own the stage and their story is the narrative that weaves together each escapade that is borne out on stage. The tenacity of ‘I Could Do Without You’ in act one gives way to the tenderness of ‘Secret Love’ by act two as the two discover that they were in fact in love with each other the whole time.

A true stage stealer however was found in Samuel Holmes’ Francis Fryer, an actor who is booked to play a show in Deadwood in a case of mistaken identity which plays out to a hilarious conclusion. Holmes’ comedic timing is second to none and his blossoming friendship with the townsfolk is a rocky road sprinkled with moments of knee-slapping fun.

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In a show about a woman called Calamity, the only part of the show nearing the definition of the phrase was the struggle parts of the cast had with a Dakotan accent, slipping at times back to semi-British but never to an extent that it ruined any performance.

(Image: Mark Senior) Calamity Jane is a show that marries a hoedown with the mid-20th century Hollywood flair that you would expect from a good old-fashioned Western.

The only troubling plot point was the insistence that Jane should “think like a woman” instead of a slightly more unconventional role which could have developed between her emergence as a more conventional feminine figure and her insistence on being more masculine.

Nevertheless, it is a show that harks back to that simpler Hollywood era where certain demographics will take great comfort in reminiscing.

Calamity Jane is at Sunderland Empire Theatre until Saturday, February 8 and tickets can be booked at https://calamityjanemusical.com/.