The 1953 film Calamity Jane is quick on the draw. Doris Day’s romcom western gets under way with lickety-split rhythm and irresistible whip-crack-away refrains. This stage adaptation takes its sweet time to get going, with a bit of tomfoolery from a grizzled, banjo-twanging barfly and the denizens of Deadwood opening with a ballad, The Black Hills of Dakota.
That is indicative of a show that ambles through the same storyline, adding half an hour (including a handful of extra songs) to its running time. Some of the material passes by like tumbleweed but the song Men! features Calamity ribbing the opposite sex, redressing the barrage of feminine ideals she faces in the film. Another catchy addition, Careless With the Truth, reinforces the frontierswoman’s taste for self-mythologising.
