CALAMITY JANE
BELVOIR AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018
Welcome to Deadwood !.
This wonderful return season of CALAMITY JANE has riotously ,joyously
taken over the Upstairs theatre at Belvior. Originally at the Hayes it has won 2 Sydney Theatre Awards including the Judith Johnson
Award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for
Virginia Gay with sold out seasons and is touring nationally to much
acclaim.
The show is based on the 1953 classic film starring Doris Day .A
rather light musical comedy , similar in some ways to Annie
get Your Gun , Calamity Jane tells the somewhat fictionalised , somewhat cleaned up ,family friendly version of a real-life, boldly
adventurous yet fragile and tough woman who ignored the expectations placed
upon women to survive in the Wild West .The central story is a triple romance
, but with a couple of twists .
The
splendid cast of eight are terrifically directed by Richard Carroll .The ‘fourth wall’ is broken down , involving the
audience and making them laugh with slapstick ,meta-theatrical gags, ad-libbed
Sydney in-jokes , a couple of moments of ‘ corpsing ‘ and somewhat fizzled
special effects , allusions to vaudeville and burlesque ,all creating an
atmosphere of enormous fun .
The staging has very slightly been adjusted for the
Belvoir theatre .Some of the audience is invited to sit on stage, crowding the Golden
Garter, the Wild West saloon where the show opens, and there is audience
participation to a degree throughout . Strings of fairy
lights,with a couple of almost chandelier effects , decorate the auditorium
ceiling.
Several of the small but dazzling cast double/triple roles and
some are ‘ quadruple threat ‘ ( sing , act dance AND play a musical instrument!
).The show is presented in a deceptively
‘rough and ready ‘ style that reveals the scintillating finely nuanced
talent of the entire cast .The comedy is presented with razor sharp timing
.Cameron Mitchel’s snazzy choreography is witty ,tight and snappy . Trent Suidgeest’s lighting a perfect foil for the production , Nigel Ubrihien’s musical direction, with the buoyant score performed on a single
upright piano. Musically it ranges from vaudeville ( Fryer’s ‘ Ev’ryone Complains About The Weather )
to barbershop quartet ( Adelaide ),
soft ballads and also big show stopping numbers ( eg Windy City ) . Are we meant to pick up on possible allusions to the
musical Gypsy ? The
Black Hills of Dakota is at some points most moving and poignant .
.
In some ways the show could be regarded as politically incorrect,
with the way it referrers to First Peoples and it could also perhaps be
regarded as sexist - but Calamity and
Katie give as good as it gets with “Men’ and the witty , ironic ‘ A Woman’s Touch “ that turn
the tables ( and also possibly reveal Calamity’s somewhat confused feelings for
Katie) . Carroll reveals that Calamity Jane is
all about misjudged preconceptions - and not just regarding Calamity herself ( eg Francis with an ‘I’ not an ‘E’ ,and Katie pretending to be Adelaide Adams ,
at least at first ... are just two examples) .Gender stereotyping is examined
and the social mores of the times explored .The show feels as fresh and bold as if was written
yesterday.
Virginia
Gay as Calamity is simply magnificent and sets the theatre alight .In
a hugely warm hearted performance on the outside she is a seemingly
superefficient , no nonsense frontierswoman able to handle any emergency with a
deceptively gruff ‘manly’ appearance , who has great fun telling boastful stories
- but underneath she is an insecure , shy , tender hearted woman who has
a makeover and is revealed to be statuesquely beautiful and ultrafeminine and
who realises eventually that she has fallen for the man she has previously regarded
as an annoying rival .Her comic timing is impeccable .
Wild Bill Hickock , seemingly sinister, dark and dangerous but
with a hidden deep and tender heart was wonderfully played by Anthony Gooley .His pensive “ Higher Than A Hawk ‘, acknowledging his
hidden feelings for Calamity brings the house down . We can infer that the
marriage between Bill and Calamity will in fact be a marriage of equals .There
is verbal sparring like that of Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing ,
and the grumpy , annoyed I Can
Do Without You has similarities to ‘ Anything
You Can Do I Can Do Better’ from Annie
Get Your Gun.
Ultra glamourous Chicago theatre star , superficial , strutting Adelaide Adams , who has men falling at her
feet , ( a la Phantom of the Opera’s Prima
Donna ) and blonde bombshell like Susan , the saloon’s ‘entertainer’ were enchantingly played by Sheridan Harbridge with great aplomb
and comic timing ( her bad magic show! ).
Fiery Katie Brown was deliciously played by dark , petite Laura Bunting who wins us over with
her Keep
It Under Your Hat as we see her
develop from wannabe stage struck dresser to become the star of Deadwood .
Rob Johnson as
Francis Fryer enchantingly works his socks off as a marvellous song and dance
man , hinting of hidden bigger opportunities , who enthusiastically reminds us
that Everyone Complains About The Weather
and is forced to strut his stuff awkwardly in drag in Hive Full Of Honey .He also plays the tuba!
Virginia Gay as Calamity Jane photo by John McRae.
Tony Taylor , Virginia Gay and Anthony Gooley photo by John McRae.
Tony
Taylor as Henry Miller , the agitated ,frustrated proprietor of the
Golden Garter has a wickedly delightful time
too. Lt .Danny Gilmartin was thrillingly played and sung by extremely
handsome Matthew Pearce .
Go on treat yourself ! Jump on the Deadwood stagecoach , head for
the Golden Garter and book now for this exhilarating , joyous show.
Running time 2 @ & ½ hours including interval
Calamity Jane runs at Belvoir St 25 August -30 September 2018 .book
NOW!
https://belvoir.com.au/productions/calamity-jane/
