Review: Calendar Girls The Musical at New Wimbledon Theatre with star-studded cast
Yesterday evening I felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster. I went from laughing to crying within minutes.
It was the press night of Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s musical comedy, Calendar Girls The Musical, which we’d been invited to review as a show for adults, and I found myself being captivated by the touching storyline.
The musical, directed by Matt Ryan, tells the story about ordinary women in a Yorkshire village who are members of the local Women’s Institute (WI). One of the members Annie – played by Sarah Jane Buckley from Hollyoaks – loses her husband to cancer, and wants to raise money for a new settee for the relative room at the local hospital, where she ended up spending a lot of time prior to her husband’s death. When the WI plans the annual calendar theme, her best friend Chris shocks their fellow members by suggesting the ladies in the group do nude shots for the calendar to raise the money. Annie immediately backs the idea, but the other ladies find it atrocious and all come up with different excuses.
The musical is based on a true story, the film and play by Tim Firth, and I was impressed by the star-studded line-up, including the funny Lisa Maxwell from Loose Women and Sue Davaney from Casualty and Coronation Street.
In one of my favourite scenes in the first act of the musical, Sue Davaney, who plays Cora, was leading the Women’s Institute group and their husbands in carol singing, impressing her friends with alternative texts to all their favourites. Her energy and gusto made me regret not having learned to play the piano as a child!
The second act initially sees the group of ladies explaining their individual excuses for not wanting to do a nude calendar, and I felt the pace picked up towards the end of this act.
This was not a musical I’ll remember for power ballads–although both Buxley and Davaney particularly in my view delivered some wonderful musical performances–but for me this was more about the storyline, the emotions and the laughs. There were plenty of giggles to be had in the last 15-20 minutes of the show when the women in turn dropped their initial reservations – and robes.
Not surprisingly, the cast received a standing ovation after these brave performances.
Calendar Girls The Musical is playing at New Wimbledon Theatre until Saturday 5 October.
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