REVIEW: Calamity Jane – at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, December 1 until Saturday, December 6, 2014.

IT’S hard to realise it was back in 1953 when I last saw Calamity Jane and sadly there’s not been a glimpse ever since - until now.

Not yet a teenager, and taken along by parents to the local cinema, it was an awesome experience back then as Doris Day, the then golden girl of the screen, fought off the ‘injuns’ and her love rivals in a superb, fun film.

It may have popped up on television now and then in the six decades that have passed, along with a number of stage versions, but incredibly I’ve never caught any of them!

This latest stage adaptation by Charles K Freeman is based loosely on the film and the true-life story of Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane, who was a well known and possibly contentious heroine figure in the Wild West in the late 1800s.

So here we were, many moons later, seated and eagerly waiting to see the latest touring stage offering. Those pre-teen years may be a long time ago but the memories and visions of Doris Day in her buckskins are still there in the memory bank. So there’s a lot to live up to!

Within a minute – ‘captured’, not by the injuns but by that haunting song, The Black Hills of Dakota, as a cavalry trooper strummed a banjo alone on stage. Automatically many of the audience began humming the tune virtually at the same time as the whole ensemble on stage... all of us hooked and ready for more than two hours of fun and what proved to be first class entertainment as the whole cast rose to the challenge.

Jodie Prenger, winner of one of those TV talent shows which catapulted her into a major musical show back in 2010, has the unenviable task here of filling Doris’s breeches. She does this amply well with a powerful and spell-binding voice. She can not only belt them out with the best, but also stir up the emotions with a quiet ballad.

Great support all round too with any number of fine voices – in particular former soap opera star Tom Lister, who I remember catching occasionally over the top of a newspaper when he was in Emmerdale. I reckon his Wild Bill Hickok would give Howard Keel a good run for his money, while Giovanna Ryan (Flo) and Sioned Saunders (Susan) also impressed along with Christina Tedders (Adelaid Adams) and Phoebe Street (Kate Brown) – as music hall stars of the day.

Director Nikolai Foster has the show running along imaginatively, as sweetly if not almost as rapidly as the Deadwood Stage, and as appealing as Just blew in from the Windy City, I Can Do Without You and Secret Love, which topped the Billboard and Cash Box musical charts at number one.

This latter song allowed Jodie to prove what a strong personality she has and, more crucially, what a find she was on BBC1’s I’d Do Anything. And Sammy Fain’s songs and Paul Francis Webster’s lyrics prove they can stand the test of time.

Most of the 15-strong cast fulfil a variety of roles as they swap not only characters but also musical instruments, and boy can they sing, dance and play.

It has just the one set, but excellently presented, although you do have to work a little with the imagination as the cast switch - with the aid of certain props - from a saloon-cum-theatre, Calamity’s log cabin and onto the Deadwood Stage.

It’s great fun throughout with a special atmosphere on stage that was quickly and easily transmitted to the audience - most of whom rose to provide a fully deserved first-night standing ovation.

If you’re beginning to fret and despair because of Christmas fever, and in need of an uplifting experience, then get along to this and give yourself a treat. It’s a light-hearted love story that will lift the spirits before you tackle the card-writing and present-wrapping!