MUSICAL THEATRE

CALAMITY JANE

Studio, Sydney Opera House, October 19, u ntil November 16

Reviewed by JOHN SHAND

★★★★½

Sometimes a show and a venue press each other’s buttons in a way that makes each perspire just a little, and bundles of joy are instantly born in the form of smiles on people’s faces. Calamity Jane and the Opera House’s Studio are such a coupling. The room becomes the Golden Garter saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s – a place where women are scarce and horses are skittish.

Were some omniscient history of theatrical depictions of the fabled Jane penned, three would surely rise to the top like so many whiskey-laden burps: Doris Day in the 1953 movie, Robin Weigert in TV’s superlative Deadwood and Virginia Gay in this ongoing production of the musical d

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