JODIE Prenger has an affection for York, even though the Blackpool actress is yet to appear in a theatre show in the city.

“I haven’t played York before, but I love shopping there,” she says.

“I might be late on stage as I could be out shopping again!”

Jodie, winner of the BBC1 talent show I’d Do Anything in 2008, will make her Grand Opera House debut from Tuesday to Saturday in the title role of Calamity Jane, the Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster and Charles K Freeman musical based on the 1953 film.

Directed by North Yorkshireman Nikolai Foster, the touring production mounted by the Watermill Theatre, in Newbury, began life in the Berkshire town last July, took to the road in September and has now resumed its travels until August 8.

“We started way back at the Watermill, a very bijou theatre with only about 195 seats, but it was brilliant because the Watermill looked just like a saloon bar, so it all worked really well,” says Jodie.

“Then we went out on tour to Plymouth, a 2,000-seat theatre and we packed it out and it was the same in Glasgow, where they were literally hoe-downing down the aisle.”

Jodie first conquered the West End after securing the role of Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane through winning I’d Do Anything and subsequently starred as Dolly, “the tart with the heart”, in the National Theatre’s One Man, Two Guvnors in London and on tour and as Lady of the Lake in Monty Python’s Spamalot.

Nevertheless, the prospect of leading a company of actor-musicians while following in the footsteps of Doris Day in Calamity Jane was daunting.

“For me personally, I was nervous, because you’re stepping into this massive leading role of Doris Day, which I’d grown up on,” says Jodie.

She was immediately put at ease by the audiences.

“It’s been lovely to have them joining in with the songs,” she says, and what songs they are.

The Black Hills Of Dakota, The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away), Just Blew In From The Windy City and the award-winning Secret Love are but four favourites in a show with orchestrations and musical supervision by Catherine Jayes, choreography by Nick Winston and set and costume design by Matthew Wright.

Led by Nikolai Foster, the creative time has been very supportive. “The director is brilliant; he’s so trusting of the cast, and working with choreographer Mick Winston – as he did for White Christmas in Leeds this winter – they put their trust in you and you put your trust in them,” says Jodie.

“It’s like being thown into a swimming pool for the first time; you know what direction you want to go in, but you still want guidance on how to swim.”

Calamity Jane, should you require a quick refresher course, is based on the story of Martha Jane Canary or Cannary, alias Calamity Jane, an American frontierswoman and professional scout known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok and for fighting Indians.

In the musical version, Calamity Jane can outrun and out-shoot any man in Deadwood. Hard, boastful and desperate to impress, she travels to Chicago on the Deadwood Stage to recruit a star, Adelaid Adams, but things don’t go too smoothly for Calamity because everyone in town favours the new girl and she struggles to keep her jealousy and pride in check. Only her long-standing enemy, Wild Bill Hickok (played by Tom Lister) can make her see sense and realise her Secret Love.

“Calamity fights, she shoots, she speaks like a man, but she just wants to be loved, so it’s balancing the roles of a woman,” says Jodie. “She was chalk and cheese, the original girl-power woman.”

In her research on the real Calamity Jane, Jodie was struck by how Calamity resonated with her.

“I looked up the original story of Calamity Jane and the gold rush and the search for land, which was a really treacheous time to live,” she says.

“Apart from the smoking and being an alcoholic, I had all her traits. Feisty! Bolshy! Hanging out with men! But as my nan said, ‘if you’re not for sale, don’t put it in the shop window’.”

Jodie loves playing Calamity, the clothing and all.

“She’s just great! Buckskins are so comfortable; it’s like wearing your pyjamas on stage. I wish they’d make buckskin onesies,” she says.

“She’s brilliant to play, and I’m still discovering new things to bring to the performance. There are lots of bits where you really have to keep to the script as it’s a period piece, but also you can be true to yourself because there is that feisty thing in all of us. Love is what makes the world go round and it’s love that triumphs here, which is always a sign of a good musical.”

Looking ahead, Jodie has “a couple of things in the offing”. “Sadly I can’t talk about them,” she apologises. “But my ultimate goal is I want to open my own animal sanctuary. That’s exactly what Doris Day did, so I’d like to follow in her shoes and doing Calamity Jane is a good start.”

• Calamity Jane runs at Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday to Saturday; evenings, 7.30pm; matinees, 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

Did you know?

Jodie Prenger performed with York Theatre Royal pantomime fall guy Martin Barrass in Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors in the West End. “I love that man! He was so funny as the old waiter; the part that Richard wrote for him,” she says.