Calamity Jane opened at the Congress Theatre Eastbourne last night to a standing ovation from a very enthusiastic audience. Starring Jodie Prenger alongside a cast of multi-talented actor/musicians, this stylish production gets to the heart and soul of the musical, each and every actor on the stage is also an accomplished musician and this gives a real immersive edge to the musical and makes it feel really intimate and fresh.
Calamity Jane can outrun and outshoot any man in Deadwood. Hard, boastful and desperate to impress, she travels to Chicago on the Deadwood Stage to recruit a star, Adelaide Adams. But things don’t go too smoothly for Calamity, as everyone in town favours the new girl and she struggles to keep her jealousy and pride in check. It takes her long standing enemy Wild Bill Hickok to make her see sense, and realise her Secret Love…
With a score that includes The Black Hills of Dakota, The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away) and the award winning song Secret Love, this is a musical with a high recognition factor, although my young companion didn’t know any of the songs, had never heard of Doris Day and didn’t know ‘Secret Love’ but still enjoyed this new production and was humming the tunes as we made our way home.
Jodie Prenger headlines the cast and is a big presence whenever she’s on stage, her voice is big brassy and has the wonderful vocal power that reminded me of Ethel Merman and I mean that as a huge compliment. She is also unfortunately acting like Ethel too, which slightly takes the edge of the performance. Prenger’s Jane is big, bold and gives it her all, all the time, so there’s little space for tenderness or romantic reflection when the need comes along. Her Jane is all front and not much heart.
Luckily she is paired with Tom Lister who’s performance was convincing and engaging from the off and his second act solo played with heart-warming reflection on his guitar was the high point of the night for me, his deft handling on the duets injecting some much needed romance. His voice is dreamy and subtle and just perfect for Wild Bill, he’s also an accomplished comic actor and his timing, especially when dressed roughly as Queen Victoria was touch perfect and got some of the biggest laughs of the night, although Prenger can certainly milk some humor from the odd mishap on stage too, which pleased the audience no end last night.
The supporting cast were all superb, their musical skills given some cute entertaining outings on stage, and the dancing and chorography are also high energy and using the limited space on stage they manage to bring a verve and vigour to the dancing.
The set is a ‘stage within a stage’ and gives us a feeling of being in Deadwood, with great atmospheric effects done with lighting and smoke. This gives a real feeling of watching something vintage and improvised. This is a serious production though, so not much irony in the jokes, just good clean laughs and the songs sung as they were meant to.
For more information on the show, click here:
The Congress Theatre is a nice modern theatre with great acoustics and perfect slight lines from each seat. It’s a comfortable venue too, although not terribly stylish at the moment but it is undergoing a face lift, so let’s be patient and see what happens; it also has the cheapest theatre bar I’ve been to in the last five years. Car parking is free and easy too, so it’s well worth a jaunt out to catch this show while it’s running. You’d pay much less in petrol than it would cost to park in central Brighton, save a fortune on your interval drinks, plus you get to drive back under the moon via Beachy Head humming ‘take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota.’ Perfect!
Tuesday 24 – Saturday, February 28 2015
Opening Times: Evenings 7.30pm
Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday Matinee 2.30pm
For more info or to book tickets, click here:
Box Office: 01323 412000
Map for the Congress here
Congress Theatre, Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 4BP
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