The New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham
Presents:
Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 February 2015
An electrifying buzz of excitement filled the auditorium at the New Alexandra Theatre for the classic Wild West musical Calamity Jane’s opening night. An abundance of cowboy hats and other tassel lined costume pieces accompanied the audience’s attire adding to the fun of becoming fully immersed in the Wild West theme of the night ahead.
Its the Summer of 1876 in Deadwood City and the audience are involved right from the start to feel like they are the spectators of the saloon’s shows. A comical introduction of a banjo player in spotlight in front of the main stage curtain mimics that of the saloon stage where our story is set, a creative yet simple detail to engage us straight away and feel very involved while a sing along to “The Black Hills of Dakota” develops. As the sing-along progresses, we were joined by the full cast as the curtain was raised to reveal the stunningly detailed set of Henry Miller’s saloon.
It is at the saloon from where the story begins and all of the action takes place and we witness a lively and friendly community of all sorts of characters. Our strong minded, thick skinned heroine Calamity Jane (Jodie Prenger) is paired with the ironically named straight laced keeper of the peace Wild Bill (Tom Lister) to step in and save the nervous saloon owner Henry Miller’s (Anthony Dunn) neck. Unrest ensues when it seems that not for the first time, the booking of a beautiful actress turns sour as voluptuous Frances arrives and much to the owner’s dismay is actually “Francis” - a man (Rob Delaney). Despite his best and hilarious efforts to impress the punters with his womanly charm, his identity is unveiled and Calamity is forced to politely shoot her gun to silence the miners and nearly give the audience a heart attack. From this point onwards, Calamity is on a mission to retrieve the lusted after heart throb Adelaide Adams (Christina Tedders) from Chicago, that the miners crave to save the saloon. Mistaking the young and beautiful performer hopeful Katy Brown (Phoebe Street) for Adelaide, Calamity loads her onto the next coach for Deadwood City for her to perform. Crushed under the pressure of stage fright and guilt, Katy reveals her true identity on stage to a crowd of unsatisfied customers, where once again Calamity uses her unique powers of persuasion to extinguish the flames of anger and accepts Katy into the community. However, as the new girl in town becomes more popular, the growing desire for her affections spread to that of sweetheart prince charming like Lt. Danny Gilmartin (Alex Hammond) whom Calamity is infatuated with. Rivalry commences between Katy and Calamity and becomes a potential threat to the peace of the community, its up to their friends to help Calamity embrace change or her world could be turned upside down.
There is no doubt that this cast is incredibly talented on many levels as not only do they all sing beautifully and blend harmoniously together, most of the cast play several musical instruments and perform them flawlessly on stage for the music throughout the show which was especially impressive when syncing this with complex dance routines. All cast members excelled in all areas of performance with seemingly endless amounts of energy and enthusiasm which is incredibly infectious! The level of skill really stood out and added to the wow factor of the performance as every cast member showcased their art impeccably.
Jodie Prenger was phenomenal, her confident, leading lady performance with her famously powerful voice from the West End and strong character interpretation really embodied Calamity Jane’s personality that had the audience captivated as we rooted for her and laughed with her the whole way through.
Birmingham’s own Alex Hammond is perfect for the role of Wild Bill as he portrays the changing characteristics of Bill brilliantly; from the strong and surly serious side in Act 1, to his more tender and playful side in Act two where his acoustic rendition of Higher than a Hawk melted the hearts of the audience.
Rob Delaney impressed as Francis with his incredibly light footed dancing, animated expression and flawless comic timing that had the audience in fits of laughter.
Phoebe Street injected a lot of comedy and fun to the show through her role as the sweet and quirky Katy Brown with whom we all immediately connected to for her endearing vulnerability and beautiful voice.
This show will have you grinning from ear to ear with its toe tapping catchy music to sing along to, hoe downs galore, stunning set and costume transporting you back in time, quick on the draw dialogue and full to the brim of talent that will leave you speechless and wanting more.
Review by Nathalie Colen
Review by Nathalie Colen
PRODUCTION NOTES:
WATERMILL THEATRE NEWBURY, JAMIE WILSON
PAUL ELLIOTT AND DUNCAN C WELDON’S
NEW PRODUCTION OF THE MUSICAL
Birmingham’s very own Alex Hammond will play a leading role in a brand new production of Calamity Jane, at the New Alexandra Theatre from Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 February 2015. He will join Jodie Prenger in the title role of ‘Calamity Jane’ former Emmerdale star Tom Lister as ‘Wild Bill Hickok ,and Pheobe Street as Katie Brown.
Alex, 23, who grew up in Kings Heath and went to King Edward’s Camp Hill, is a former member Solihull Operatic Society’s youth section and a graduate from the Royal Academy of Music last summer.
He most recently played the understudy of Sam Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the New Alexandra Theatre in February 2014 and achieved rave reviews from Birmingham audiences.
Tom Lister most recently played ‘Grimes and Eel’ in the world premiere of “Water Babies” at Leicester Curve. He is probably best known to TV audiences for his role as ‘Carl King’ in ITV’s “Emmerdale”, a part he plated for nine years. His theatre credits also include ‘Pan’ in “Loves Mistress” at the Globe Theatre and ‘Ralph’ in “Accrington Pals” at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Alex Hammond made his professional debut in the hugely successful “Taboo” at the Brixton Academy. He most recently played the role of ‘Adam Pontipee’ in the national tour of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. His other theatre credits include “Save The Last Dance For Me”. Phoebe Street most recently appeared in “The Light Princess” at the National Theatre. Her other credits include “Les Miserables” at the Queen’s Theatre where she made her West End debut.
The rest of the company includes Anthony Dunn as ‘Henry Miller’, Sioned Saunders as ‘Susan’, Rob Delaney as ‘Francis Fryer’,Christina Tedders as ‘Adelaide Adams’, Paul Kissaun as ‘Rattlesnake’, Jon Bonner as ‘Doc’, Martin McCarthy as ‘Joe’, Matthew James Hinchliffe as ‘Buck’ and Jamie Noar as ‘Hank’.
Jodie Prenger is probably best known for winning the role of ‘Nancy’ in Cameron Mackintosh’s West End production of “Oliver!” through the BBC television series “I’d Do Anything”. During her run in the show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane she received both critical and public acclaim for her portrayal of the role. Since then she has starred in the National Theatre’s hit production of “One Man, Two Guvnors” both in the West End and on tour and as ‘Lady of the Lake’ in “Spamalot”. Jodie is also a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2.
“CALAMITY JANE” will be directed by Nikolai Foster, has Orchestrations and Musical Supervision by Catherine Jayes, Choreography by Nick Winston, Set and Costume design by Matthew Wright, Lighting Design by Richard G Jones and Sound Design by Sebastian Frost.
Nikolai Foster’s most recent theatre credits include the 20th Anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey’s “Beautiful Thing” both in the West End and on tour, “Annie” at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and the national tour of “The Witches of Eastwick”.
Catherine Jayes was most recently musical director for the award-winning production of “Merrily We Roll Along” at both the Menier Chocolate Factory and Harold Pinter theatre in the West End. Her other credits at the Chocolate Factory include “The Color Purple” and “Road Show”. She has composed the music for “The Duchess of Malfi”, “Othello”, “The Changeling”, “Cymbeline” and “Troilus and Cressida”, all for Cheek By Jowl where she is also an associate director. Her other musical director credits include “Guys and Dolls” and “Sweet Charity” for Sheffield Crucible and “Gypsy”, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “High Society” for the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Nick Winston’s theatre credits as choreographer include “Loserville” in the West End and “Annie” and “Sweeney Todd” at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and most recently the World Premiere of “Water Babies” at Leicester Curve.
Following numerous highly acclaimed productions that include “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunset Boulevard”, The Watermill Theatre, Newbury presents a new production of the classic musical “CALAMITY JANE”. Featuring a cast of multi-talented actor/musicians to create an unforgettable experience, this brand new production gets to the heart and soul of the musical.
Calamity Jane can outrun and outshoot any man in Deadwood. Hard, boastful and desperate to impress, she travels to Chicago to recruit a star, Adelaide Adams, for the Deadwood Stage. 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...
Calamity Jane has an Oscar nominated score that includes The Black Hills of Dakota, The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), Just Blew in from the Windy City and the award-winning song Secret Love.
“CALAMITY JANE” is adapted for the stage by Charles K. Freeman and has music by Sammy Fain with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.
CALAMITY JANE 2014/2015
17 – 21 February 2015 – BIRMINGHAM NEW ALEXANDRA THEATRE
Tickets are available on www.atgtickets.com/birmingham or 0844 871 3011
No comments:
Post a Comment