‘Calamity Jane’: Virginia Gay Returns For A Near-Perfect Staging Of A Classic

An absolute boot-stomper of a production, Calamity Jane at the Opera House is as close to perfect as musical theatre gets. With an exceptional cast led by Virginia Gay in a role she rightly won acclaim for in previous productions, it’s exactly what you want out of a staging of this iconic musical and more: impressively funny, sprawling in scope and holding a quiet undercurrent of emotion that you won’t notice until you’re already swept away.

The show begins long before the curtains are officially drawn, with the Opera House’s Studio theatre floor transformed into the Golden Garter saloon where cast members walk throughout the wooden chairs and tables. As with many previous stagings of this show, there’s a huge amount of audience participation in the show that feels remarkably well-integrated thanks to its spectacular cast of performers with extensive experience in the realm of cabaret.

Calamity Jane tells the tale of its titular gender-bending heroine and her exploits in the dusty, Frontier-era town of Deadwood. After a mishap with a performer at the Golden Garter, Jane sets off on a quest to find a showgirl with star power to please members of the town like lawman Wild Bill Hickok (Andrew Cutcliffe) and her prospective paramour Lt Danny Gilmartin (Kaya Byrne).

However, she soon encounters another misstep when she mistakes Katie Brown (Kala Gare) for the much more successful Adelaide Adams (Victoria Falconer). Confusion ensues and, along the way, Jane yearns for meaningful connections in her fellow town members and generally brings an impeccable vibe to this old town that’s nothing short of riveting to watch while queer coding and subverting notions of the Wild West at every chance.

Virginia Gay is spectacular as the titular Calamity Jane

Leading the pack of characters is, naturally, Calamity Jane. Although the last time the magnificent Virginia Gay stepped into these boots was pre-COVID, they seem to be showing no sign of age as Gay effortlessly slips back into them. What impressed me most is the sheer complexity and depth on display in her rendition of Jane; it’s a performance that was able to both move me and make me chuckle, especially with her razor-sharp improvisational skills. The show’s audience interaction in general is superb, too; it doesn’t feel like a gimmick, and more like a way to welcome everybody into the world of Deadwood.

It also helps that this production of Calamity Jane is directed superbly by the returning Richard Carroll, utilising a set where it often feels like nothing is bolted down. A piano flies on and off stage, lighting is expertly deployed to accentuate key moments and the songs are impeccably directed and sung, courtesy of his longtime collaboration with musical director Nigel Ubrihien and choreographer Cameron Mitchell. Keep an eye out for this version of The Black Hills of Dakota… I had chills in the theatre!

Gay is far from the only scene-stealer in the show, though – this staging of Calamity Jane has a truly exceptional array of supporting performers. Kaya Byrne and Andrew Cutcliffe are sensational as two very different kinds of Wild West masculinity, especially in a scene where they fight over Katie.

Speaking of Katie, Kala Gare is superb as the handmaid-turned-singer. Better yet, this is a rendition that does not shy away from the queer coding of the original text at all, making Jane and Katie’s relationship deliberately overt (I mean, their song is called A Woman’s Touch… huge “they were roommates” vibes).

A truly exceptional revival show

There’s also the hysterical Ryan Gonzalez as the somewhat underwhelming performer Francis Fryer – although he does totally rock a dress in the first act – and Phillip Lowe as Golden Garter owner Henry Miller who perfects the vibe of a guy on the verge of a nervous breakdown the whole time.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the arguable MVP of the show, Victoria Falconer. Playing two roles in Henry’s niece Susan and the amorous Adelaide Adams, Falconer’s penchant for comedic timing often propels the show forward as she balances her dual roles with endless charm.

The only flaws of Calamity Jane are inherited from the source material. It ends somewhat suddenly, and perhaps shows some of its age in an ending where two heavily queer-coded characters end up with men at the end – even if Jane’s path to marriage is still highly entertaining.

Yet everything else about this revised take on Calamity Jane is so fun, subversive and stylish that these minor misgivings simply can’t bring it down. It’s the closest thing to a perfect musical that I’ve seen all year, and is more than worthy of the love that I guarantee its many audiences are sure to show it.

Calamity Jane is playing now at the Opera House until November 16.