Versatility, originality and imaginatively economic staging are the hallmarks of any production emanating from the Watermill Theatre in Berkshire.

However well known individual members of the cast may be, they are firmly part of the ensemble and this is the strength of the entertainment. It is never a star vehicle.

Each player is an actor, singer, dancer and musician, often a multi-instrumentalist. On cue they can become a hoe-down dance troupe or a 15-piece orchestra, a choir or a collection of talented soloists.

Calamity Jane is, more or less, a true story. Jodie Prenger gives a lusty performance in the title role of the tough, sharp-shooting (and line-shooting) frontier woman. Tom Lister impressed as Wild Bill Hickok with a fine voice and a powerful stage presence.

There were equally strong performances from Alex Hammond as Lt Danny Gilmartin and Phoebe Street, as the love rivals for Calamity and Bill, and the ensemble work was slick and energetic.

The show was adapted for the stage by Charles K Freeman, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.

The cast had mastered their hillbilly American accents so well that they were sometimes almost incomprehensible although the musical diction was fine. Fortunately the story is well known and fairly simple, so not too much was lost.

The one set served all occasions, encouraging the audience to use its collective imagination to see the Deadwood theatre/bar, Calamity’s shambolic cabin, a theatre in Chicago and a ballroom at the barracks.

Especially entertaining was the way the cast used themselves and the furniture to simulate a moving stagecoach and a steam train. The choreography for this was brilliant, as it was in the more conventional sense of dance.

It’s a lively and satisfying evening’s fun.