Friday, December 5

Tag: Samuel Holmes

Calamity Jane – Blackpool Opera House
North West

Calamity Jane – Blackpool Opera House

Based on the 1953 film, Calamity Jane is finally back on stage and whipping up great audiences all over the UK. This time starring multi award-winning theatre star Carrie Hope Fletcher (Les Misérables, Heathers) as the titular Wild West heroine, this touring revival is bound to have your feet a-stomping and your hands clapping. Fearless, gun-slinging Calamity is always telling tales of her adventures to her friends in Deadwood, but this time might be one lie too many. When she promises to bring back an adored actress to appease the obsessed men of the town, Calamity not only causes chaos amongst the people, but she may have instigated a love battle… and who will get her heart in the end? Alongside the classic tunes from Sammy Fain and Paul Francis, this new adaptation by Charles K. Free...
Calamity Jane – Leeds Grand Theatre
Yorkshire & Humber

Calamity Jane – Leeds Grand Theatre

All musicals need at least two showstoppers, and Calamity Jane exceeds that bar with songs to spare. Show opener The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away) would be enough on its own for any self-respecting posse of musical theatre fans, but when you throw in the Oscar winning Secret Love, plus an utterly bonkers ahistorical plot, then it’s time to saddle up for a fun night out in Dakota’s Wild West. Calamity Jane is a stagecoach driver in Deadwood where her sparring partner gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok helps keep the peace, and when a local saloon singer is unmasked as a drag act she hightails it to Chicago to persuade famed performer Adelaide Adams to come back to Deadwood.  But the brash and excitable Calamity - who as the folk of Deadwood sing is Careless With The Truth - is aptly ...
The Dresser – The King’s Theatre
Scotland

The Dresser – The King’s Theatre

Since changes in restrictions have brought theatre back, sent it away and brought it back again, the number of plays about theatre and the theatrical experience have seemingly quadrupled. But Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser is different. It’s not about why we need theatre, or even why need actors. In fact, in keeping with Ronald Harwood’s dictate with didactic theatre, ‘The Dresser’ is art for art’s sake. But it soon becomes apparent that ‘The Dresser’ is more than just a bit of two-dimensional entertainment. Norman, (Samuel Holmes) is the dresser to ‘Sir’ (Matthew Kelly) a stalwart actor, who now in the depths of WWII and in the midst of emotional despair, finds himself touring ‘provincial’ theatres in the blitz with a cast of ill-prepared actors. Every night they desperately try to cobbl...