Alison Kerr's verdict: three stars

For a while, at the start of the Watermill Theatre's production of Calamity Jane on Tuesday night, it looked as if this was to be a singalonga performance. The lone, banjo-playing, character onstage only had to strum the first couple of chords of The Black Hills of Dakota and almost everyone in the audience began to gently hum; by the time the full song was performed (what seemed like months later) in the second act, over two hours' worth of pent-up karaoke frustration was unleashed - for the big, climactic hoe-down.

That was one memorable moment among the many which were provided by a small but perfectly formed ensemble in which the actors are also musicians - and all the music is performed by them, onstage and both in and out of character. This multi-tasking aspect added authenticity and provided such highlights as Wild Bill Hickok (Tom Lister) singing and playing guitar on the lovely ballad Higher Than a Hawk.

Anyone who went to the show expecting Chitty Bang Bang-style special effects for the Deadwood Stage might have been disappointed, but the ingenuity required to create the famously rickety old stagecoach using a piano, chairs, a ladder, two wheels and some umbrellas was just as dazzling. Indeed, the way in which the same set was transformed, via curtain upgrades and lighting, from the Golden Garter saloon to the Bijou Theatre, Chicago, was terrific - along with the sepia look of the Deadwood scenes.

Playing the title role, Jodie Prenger was at home belting out such up-tempo numbers as The Windy City, but her Calam was more a hoarse Ethel Merman than an effervescent Doris Day - though the audience (which included some very vocal fans or colleagues) was on her side throughout.