Hull New Theatre – until 2nd December 2023
Reviewed by Dawn Bennett
5*****
Bill Kenwright Presents Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s Calendar Girls The Musical
Last night at Hull New Theatre we were treated to a masterclass in how to put on a musical. Its going to be quite hard to put into words how good it was but I’ll give it a go!
The show based on the true story of a group of women from a Women’s Institute in a small Yorkshire Village who set out to raise some money to buy a sofa for the visitor’s room at their local hospital after tragedy hits one of the group. Annie (Tanya Franks) and her husband John (Colin R Campbell) receive the news that he has cancer and we follow his journey. This part of the production isn’t an easy one but it is played beautifully and the songs are both heartbreaking and poignant. The songs are just lovely and are sung with such feeling and we get to meet and find out about each of the characters this way.
Chris (Amy Robbins) has the idea to produce a calendar to help raise the funds but not your normal WI, with pictures of Yorkshire, knitting or jam but with…gasp…nudes and the WI ladies being the nudes as well!! The WI is led by Marie (Paula Tappenden) a stickler for the rules and she wants your normal calendar the same as previous years. The other members Ruth (Maureen Nolan), Jessie (Lyn Paul), Celia (Marti Webb) and Cora (Honeysuckle Weeks) get together and along with Chris’s husband, Rod (Graham MacDuff), who is going to photograph the pictures for the calendar and what follows is hilarious!
This is magnificent show, from the Band (led by musical director Jordan Alexander), the very talented cast to everyone else involved in putting this production on stage. The nude scenes are very tasteful and greeted by loud cheers from the audience! Just checking through the programme at what other things the cast had been in is jaw dropping enough but to see them all in action is just superb! Go and see this show you will not be disappointed…I certainly wasn’t!