APPARENTLY Calamity averted a calamity at Tuesday’s dress rehearsal, after actress Jo Pears spotted material alight and flames as high as five feet at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.

Thankfully, a fire extinguisher did its duty, but nevertheless the attendance of two fire engines necessitated the termination of the all-important rehearsal.

Such are the unpredictable dramas of theatre but, as ever, the show must go on, in this case New Earswick Musical Society’s first staging of Calamity Jane in 43 years.

Producer-choreographer Ann McCreadie and her cast pulled through with flying colours at Wednesday’s first night, the performance benefiting from the presence of seasoned performers in prominent roles: not only Pears as the feisty tomboy Calamity Jane but also Dougie Weake as Wild Bill Hickock and McCreadie herself as singing star Adelaide Adams.

Best known for the 1953 film with Doris Day, Hollywood’s “greatest Western musical” is the story of good-hearted Calamity Jane, who “tried to behave like a man but couldn’t help lovin’ like a woman”.

In obligatory buckskins and britches, hands on her gun belt, Pears has the game gal spot on, an abrasive livewire with a tendency to exaggerate (or “fantasticate” as Wild Bill calls it) and quite the loudest pistol you ever did hear. So loud, in fact, that it still startles you each time it goes off.

Pears’s performance is even more of a blast, and her serenading singing of Secret Love is a particular high point, opposite Weake’s fine, upstanding big Bill in this romantic scene. She sets the comic tone, while he is every inch the old-fashioned leading man, his voice as strong as his grip, especially for Higher Than A Hawk.

Calamity Jane is a fun musical and is played in that spirit by principals and company alike, from the opening ensemble rendition of The Deadwood Stage at The Golden Garter, the financially stricken theatre run by Henry Miller (Adrian Clay, who needs to speak louder, shout if necessary, over the orchestra at the outset, but then gives a most engaging performance).

No one has more fun than a cross-dressing Steve Padfield, a riot of yellow and black as he sings Hive Full Of Honey in the guise of New York entertainer Frances Fryer.

Stephanie Crossley is in fine voice as Katie Brown, the young maid and wannabe singer mistaken for Adelaide Adams when Calamity comes a’calling in Chicago to ask Adelaide to help save the theatre.

Paul Blenkiron’s smitten Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin sings heartily too and, as with all the playing, he balances sincerity with a hint of tongue in cheek.

One or two supporting players need to attend to their not-so-American accents, but the ensemble songs are a joy, most notably Windy City and the lamp-lit The Black Hills Of Dakota.

Don Pears and his band add to the enjoyment with their lively accompaniment, and Deadwood City is very much alive in New Earswick’s hands.

Calamity Jane, New Earswick Musical Society, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or 01904 768182.