It was an incredible 72 years ago that Doris Day’s Calamity Jane first went whip-crack-away and the Deadwood stage started a-comin’ on over the plain. Set in 1870’s Dakota in non-pc Goldrush days, the 1953 comic western rom-com with its classic love-triangle complications and cases of mistaken identity was released at a time when non-pc westerns were all the rage in cinemas and on TV and unenlightened children everywhere ran about playing Cowboys and Indians. There’s no mention of a single Native American in this show, though, and Calamity’s tall tales boast of vanquishing bandits rather than “injuns”. The era of the fifties was also one that much promoted the all-American ideal of women and wives as prettified, ladylike, home-baking, home-making, man-pleasing, child-rearing ones, and this, indeed, is the happy-ever-after ending that Calamity also ultimately aspires to. Doris Day was asked decades later if the film also intended to carry a Lesbian vibe; it didn’t, she said, but it was wonderful if anyone wanted to see it that way.
1961 hailed the first stage version of the musical and this production goes back to 2014. The nostalgic, joyful allure of catchy, evergreen songs like The Deadwood Stage, The Black Hills of Dakota and Secret Love delights in any context, though a couple of songs, thrown in here for a bit of pc balance, lack their pizzazz. Music-wise, though, it’s the spectacle of seeing an entire, constantly mobile orchestra onstage, that is truly something to behold! Even as they play, the actor-musicians sing, dance and act with vigour. Ever busy, they’re on the move hither and thither to every part of the stage and balconies above, as they mill and mingle, strum, pluck, blow, bow and tinkle. The broad set of dark, log-cabin wood of Deadwood’s saloon-cum-Victorian music hall with its motley row of lantern footlights keeps itself pretty static as a consequence, for it’s not just flute, saxes, violin, trumpets, accordion, mouth organ, banjo, coconut-shells and guitars that are waltzed, walked and skipped non-stop to all locations, it’s cello, double bass and piano, too! But there are space and props enough for Katie and Calamity to give their log-cabin a minimal woman’s touch and for improvised fun in conjuring up stagecoach and train journeys.
In spite of busy hoe-downs and songs, though, the show lacks, for the most part, that joyous uplift, sparkle and charm it requires, and when it comes to romance and relationships we’re in, regrettably, a somewhat chemistry-free zone. The crucial sparring, spatting, spitting relationship between tough-talking, strong, independent Calamity (Carrie Hope Fletcher) and the brittle, stern, unpleasant Bill Hickok (Vinny Coyle) lacks any tiny spark of underlying, playful warmth or charm, and without characters and relationships slowly and subtly unfolding and developing, the result can feel, at times, somewhat awkward and lumpen. There’s still, however, plenty of pleasantness and ample amusement throughout. Seren Sandham-Davies’ Katie Brown and Peter Peverley’s Henry Millie Miller are pretty perky, while sunny Susan (Hollie Cassar) and Francis Fryer (Samuel Holmes) create a vibrant, joyfully alive, fine-dancing couple, their roles expanded to add interesting dance routines and more comedic input.
Deadwood is certainly busy, busy, busy and it brings many tuneful and fun moments, but it does lack the overall chemistry that would add that extra magic and sparkle.
Eileen Caiger Gray
