St Agnes’ Choral Society are performing the musical
Calamity Jane all week in the Grand Opera House. The story was made famous by
the 1953 film starring Doris Day, and eight years later (the chorale society was in its third year) it was adapted into a stage musical.
Saloon owner Henry Miller is trying to patch up relations with his rowdy clientele in a goldrush town. Sure hasn’t everyone booked a Frances only for a Francis to turn up?! So Calamity Jane – prone to a spot of exaggeration – promises that she’ll go to Chicago and bring back the pin-up performer Adelaide Adams to perform. But true to her nickname, Calamity returns with an actress who isn’t quite the real deal. However, in a town full of people who are searching for something they haven’t yet got (gold and riches), Katie Brown gets a second chance … until she captures the heart of the man her new best friend Calamity has her heart set on. What a calamity!
Musical director Andrew Robinson’s fine band of fifteen down in the pit have the audience clapping along with the overture that previews many of the show’s most important melodies. Then it’s straight into the Golden Garter saloon, complete with over-excitable owner Henry Miller (played by Kevin McReynolds), ten-gallon hats and dancing in gingham dresses. The Deadwood stagecoach rolls in – a marvellous feat of set building – and the show is underway. The ensemble choreography (designed by Amy Blackshaw) during
Windy City impresses. Aideen Fox delivers a (deliberately) wonderfully out-of-tune and clumsy rendition of
Keep It Under Your Hat pretending to be Adelaide Adams before reprising with confidence and style as Katie Brown. Gappy opening night timing slows down some scenes, particularly entrances, but that will tighten up as the week of performances bed in.
Despite being full of hummable tunes (
Windy City, The Black Hills of Dakota, Secret Love),
Calamity Jane isn’t often performed by amateur dramatic or chorale societies. (From the extensive list of St Agnes’ productions at the back of the programme, this seems like their first tilt at it in 67 years.) Like most musicals from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, it retains dated sensibilities. Native Americans are frequently referred to as “savages” who are shot on sight and whose death toll is celebrated. One line of non-ironic dialogue remarks: “no wonder them lnjuns fight so fierce-t'hang onto this country”. There’s also a very male lens, played for laughs but really just downright misogyny, with Calamity ridiculed for bring rugged and handy with a gun, but also scolded for being hysterical and “thinking like a woman”. Shows from the past can still speak to the present, asking how much has really changed. Pleasingly, last night’s Belfast audience noticed and tut tutted at some of the examples of sexism in the story!
The shorter second act contains the best songs. Leaving aside any misgivings over the sentiment,
A Woman’s Touch is very enjoyable and Calamity (played brilliantly by Lorraine Jackson) still retains recognisable ‘tomboy’ mannerisms despite her transformation from hunting skins to a flattering dress. (The cabin set’s built-in surprises could be given more prominence.) While Jackson goes through a lot of wigs and costumes, she never loses the essence of what makes her character a force of nature, and her delivery of lines and lyrics is exemplary. Gareth McGreevy’s vocals as Lieutenant Danny are great, and Wild Bill’s voice is a revelation when swaggering Kyle Emerson switches from speaking to singing. The male ensemble doesn’t quite have the strength or sweetness of the female vocalists: perhaps a focus for future recruitment to boost the tenors and basses.
If the script was a stagecoach, there’d be a cloud of dust as the plot makes a handbrake turn and Calamity and Bill declare their real feelings for each other. The fighting-to-friendship switcheroo could do with a bit more obvious foreshadowing over the previous hour or more, but the powerful rendition of
Secret Love makes up for the rush towards the final wedding extravaganza.
Director Laura Kerr has an abundance of acting and singing talent amongst the principal cast members, and a total company of more than 60 to manage. The stage is filled with the faces of cast members who exude such joy at being able to perform and entertain. They’re having a ball, and the Grand Opera House audience seemed to lap up the talent on display.
St Agnes’ Choral Society’s production of
Calamity Jane continues in the Grand Opera House until Saturday 16 November. You can also catch the society up at the Queen’s Film Theatre singing carols before the screening of
White Christmas on the afternoon of Saturday 14 December. And they’re back in the Grand Opera House in March along with Belfast Operatic Company, Ulster Operatic Company and the Grand Opera House Trust with
the UK amateur première of Les Misérables, the first of 11 multi-company amateur theatre productions being staged across the UK to mark the musical’s 40th anniversary. (Because the musical is still running in the West End and professionally touring the UK, only school/youth productions are normally licensed.)
Photo credit: Nicola McKee
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3 comments:
If people took the criticisms of being non-pc to heart it would result in old shows being dropped altogether, the equivalent of “burning the books”. Trust audiences can recognise how we are now different in opinions and see how far we have come.
Let’s enjoy these old spectacular shows for what they are. Well done Aggies.
Well said!!!
Thank you, Alan for your excellent review with which I agree..(I was in the Thur audience)
Lorraine Jackson made an energetic and convincing Calamity, especially in the earlier scenes though maybe less so after her transition. The relationship between Calamity and Bill was lacking in nuance and we needed
a much more subtle build up of chemistry between them. His interactions with her were in in the main, one - dimensional so that one didn't feel the changing emotions thus robbing the later tender scenes of real impact. But I felt the standing ovation at the end was very well deserved, not least by the fantastic ladies 'chorus who were so in character and so well rehearsed! The other unsung heroes of the night were the members of the orchestra which was exceptionally good and supportive throughout. Well done indeed!
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