Pay a visit to the Wild West this Easter at the Opera House

Set in the Black Hills of Dakota, infamous frontiers Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock help out their friend Henry Miller when he hires a beautiful actress who isn’t who she seems. To save Millie’s floundering reputation from the angry miners of Deadwood City, Calamity Jane makes her way to Chicago to find their favourite heart throb, Adelaide Adams, but not everything goes to plan for Calamity when she returns back home with the wrong leading lady. Full of heart swelling tunes such as The Black Hills of Dakota, Secret Love and the infectious Whip Crack Away, performed by an award winning cast, the show will have audiences young and old singing all the way to the saloon.

Calamity Jane is a rare breed of musical which originated on the big screen before being brought to the stage evolving from the 1953 Warner Brothers film starring Doris Day and Howard Keel ‘Calamity’ is one the foremost examples and a key precedent of how the magic of cinema can be shaped and moulded for the theatre. The challenge of the musical has always been who can fill Doris Day’s shoes as the gun tooting heroine who enchants the villagers of Deadwood City with her diamond in the rough charm and heart-warming patriotism for her homeland.

The show’s director and New Lyric stalwart, Antoinette McMichael, had no qualms over whom to choose for the leading role and cast Ciara Mackey as ‘Calamity’.

No production of Calamity Jane can reach perfection without a strong supporting cast, and New Lyric demonstrates its talents in droves as the company welcomes back Raya Smyth in a principal role as the tenacious Katie Brown who steals the hearts of the Deadwood City locals as the new performer in town. The role of Calamity’s long suffering but boisterous friend Bill Hickcock will be performed by another multi-talented individual, baritone barrister Karl McGuckin.

Tickets are selling fast so get your cowboy boots on and race your friends to the box office for an unmissable show this Easter.

The show runs from Tuesday March 26 until Saturday March 30. Tickets, from £12.50, are on sale from the Grand Opera House Box Office on 9024 1919 or online at www.goh.co.uk.