Calamity Jane Festival Theatre Edinburgh 15th April 2025 Review
Calamity Jane is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tue 15 to Sat 19 April), and if you want to catch the Deadwood Stagecoach to go back in time to the American Wild West and the Black Hills Region of South Dakota, then be quick as tickets are selling fast for this entire run.
This stage production is of course based on the 1953 film of the same name starring Doris Day and Howard Keel, and if you are a fan of the film then you will probably like this show as it not only captures the essence of it, but of course has those iconic songs including “Deadwood Stage” and “Secret Love”.
Like the film, this on stage production of Calamity Jane is a politically idealised fantasy land of the American West of the time seen through the eyes of the white settlers moving there and, in this case, often being miners looking for their lucky strike of gold. The politics of this story are now as outdated as the portrayal of women in it. This is a time (both in the old west, and when the original film was produced), where what a woman should wear, how they should act, and what opportunities they should have in the world were very defined and stereotyped. Here though, Calamity Jane broke all the rules and conformed to society’s expectations of her only when it suited her to do so.
I have no idea whether the large crowds waiting to get into the theatre tonight were all lovers of the original film, but many of them certainly knew all of the main songs. I suspect that there were more than a few film fans here, but probably even more Carrie Hope Fletcher fans and they would not have been disappointed with her portrayal of Calamity Jane tonight.
Despite any personal issues I have with the original film’s fantasy rewrite (even if the main characters were real people from the old west times) of history, there is no disputing the fact that Calamity Jane was one of the most successful Hollywood films/musicals of its time and so many of the songs from it are simply classics. This rich background of musical history gives Carrie Hope Fletcher huge scope in bringing to life these songs on-stage and she does them all with style.
For Calamity Jane to really work on stage a very good counterbalance to her story is needed in Wild Bill Hickok and tonight that role was performed well by Tomas Wolstenholme (not Vinny Coyle as in the programme). Somehow Carrie Hope Fletcher and Tomas Wolstenholme both made their on/off quarrels and in the end their completely unexpected relationship believable. Tomas Wolstenholme also got that lightness of touch that this version of a wild west legend needed and he also got the musical numbers just right too.
There are a lot of good points in this show. The production quality is high and the stage set and costumes (Matthew Wright) make imaginative use at times of scenes and the restricted space that everyone has on-stage to create them (often in the mind’s-eye of the audience). One of the most interesting aspects of this show is how live musicians and dramatic actors interweave with each other.
The very format of this show, often set in a theatre with its own stage, of course allows for almost a show within a show to take place (a very old Shakespearian theatrical ploy) and allows many opportunities for Seren Sandham-Davies (Katie Brown) and Samuel Holmes (Francis Fryer) to show off their song and dance routines.
Calamity Jane is, at its heart, a classic song and dance routine show that is designed to simply entertain its audience and there is nothing wrong with that and this show does all of these things very well.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This stage production is of course based on the 1953 film of the same name starring Doris Day and Howard Keel, and if you are a fan of the film then you will probably like this show as it not only captures the essence of it, but of course has those iconic songs including “Deadwood Stage” and “Secret Love”.
Like the film, this on stage production of Calamity Jane is a politically idealised fantasy land of the American West of the time seen through the eyes of the white settlers moving there and, in this case, often being miners looking for their lucky strike of gold. The politics of this story are now as outdated as the portrayal of women in it. This is a time (both in the old west, and when the original film was produced), where what a woman should wear, how they should act, and what opportunities they should have in the world were very defined and stereotyped. Here though, Calamity Jane broke all the rules and conformed to society’s expectations of her only when it suited her to do so.
I have no idea whether the large crowds waiting to get into the theatre tonight were all lovers of the original film, but many of them certainly knew all of the main songs. I suspect that there were more than a few film fans here, but probably even more Carrie Hope Fletcher fans and they would not have been disappointed with her portrayal of Calamity Jane tonight.
Despite any personal issues I have with the original film’s fantasy rewrite (even if the main characters were real people from the old west times) of history, there is no disputing the fact that Calamity Jane was one of the most successful Hollywood films/musicals of its time and so many of the songs from it are simply classics. This rich background of musical history gives Carrie Hope Fletcher huge scope in bringing to life these songs on-stage and she does them all with style.
For Calamity Jane to really work on stage a very good counterbalance to her story is needed in Wild Bill Hickok and tonight that role was performed well by Tomas Wolstenholme (not Vinny Coyle as in the programme). Somehow Carrie Hope Fletcher and Tomas Wolstenholme both made their on/off quarrels and in the end their completely unexpected relationship believable. Tomas Wolstenholme also got that lightness of touch that this version of a wild west legend needed and he also got the musical numbers just right too.
There are a lot of good points in this show. The production quality is high and the stage set and costumes (Matthew Wright) make imaginative use at times of scenes and the restricted space that everyone has on-stage to create them (often in the mind’s-eye of the audience). One of the most interesting aspects of this show is how live musicians and dramatic actors interweave with each other.
The very format of this show, often set in a theatre with its own stage, of course allows for almost a show within a show to take place (a very old Shakespearian theatrical ploy) and allows many opportunities for Seren Sandham-Davies (Katie Brown) and Samuel Holmes (Francis Fryer) to show off their song and dance routines.
Calamity Jane is, at its heart, a classic song and dance routine show that is designed to simply entertain its audience and there is nothing wrong with that and this show does all of these things very well.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com