MORE contradictory stories and legends – including how she acquired the nickname of Calamity Jane – have probably been told about Martha Jane Canary than of any other frontierswoman of the second half of the 19th century. Thanks to Jean Arthur’s portrayal in Cecil B DeMille’s The Plainsman, and the wonderfully effervescent Doris Day, in sparkling vocal form in the Warner Brothers musical film, Jane’s relationship with Wild Bill Hickok, her propensity to exaggerate and overall big heartedness have become the norm for how people view her, although this image exaggerates her story more than a little.

And it is a mixture of these two portrayals that Carrie Hope Fletcher brings to her interpretation in the typical Watermill-style production that comes to Bristol as part of its national tour. There’s a bit of Jean Arthur’s earthiness in her swaggering male-dressed figure, and, when the music allows, the smooth tenderness of Doris Day’s vocals. To accommodate the use of the cast as actors, musicians and dancers there has been a certain juxtaposition of the score and storyline which gives Carrie Hope and Vinny Coyle’s handsomely arrogant Wild Bill Hickok fewer opportunities to develop their characters.

Not that this bothered the audience to any great extent. More than anything they had come to enjoy Sammy Fain’s tuneful score, so keen that they joined uninvited in the first number. Vinny Coyle ensured that Higher than a Hawk was full of poignant romance, Seren Sandham-Davies as Katy Brown, the dresser who would be a star performer, and Luke Wilson as the love of her life, Lt Danny Gilmartin, grabbed their one chance to show off their vocal talents in the duet Love you Dearly, and the way in which Samuel Holmes’s Francis Fryer, comedian mistaken for a Leading Lady Frances with an E, and Hollie Cassar as the local girl Susan who takes a shine to him, galloped in style through the song and dance routine left you wishing there was more to come from them.

We rather tend to take it as said that a Watermill production will be graced by actors who can sing, dance and play a musical instrument, ensuring that numbers like The Deadwood Stage and Black Hills of Dakota, loose nothing by not having a separate chorus and orchestra in the pit rather than on stage as part of the action. But as a friend of mine who had not seen a Watermill production before remarked “How do they do that combine four different talents. I would be hard pushed to handle one”.

The single multi-purpose set looks a little lost at times on the vast Hippodrome stage, but played at pace with a sense that this is a picture post card view of the Wild West, and full of memorable tunes. this a production to just sit back and enjoy.

GRP