New Wimbledon Theatre, Wimbledon – until 5 October 2019
Reviewed by Ian K Johnson
5*****
Calendar Girls the Musical is based on the true story of John Baker and his connection to the members of the Rylstone & District Women’s Institute based in Yorkshire. These women took off their clothes to produce an ‘alternative’ calendar in memory of John. The story of friendship formed by joining the WI. Annie (Sarah Jane Buckley) and Chris (Rebecca Storm) friends for many years.
Both have extremely strong voices which we are shown through numbers such as Kilimanjaro, Very Slightly Almost and Dare. Very touching, emotional and yet inspirational too. Beautifully sang by both women.
Annie and Chris are joined (reluctantly at first) by other members/friends of the WI to do a calendar to raise funds, for a settee for the relatives room in the hospital where Annie’s husband, John (superbly played by Phil Corbet), had undergone his treatment for cancer (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma).
Not the usual WI calendar, but an alternative one, in which all the ladies would be nude, but hidden behind a current bun, or a teapot or knitting or other such things deemed important by the WI members.
Cora (Sue Devaney) is the local pianist in the church, a single parent living in the village with her son while her dad is the local vicar. She sings some very different carols at the WI Christmas fund raiser and certainly gets the crowds going and digging in their pockets. Sue can really hit that high top C. The other ladies are all involved with village life include Celia (Lisa Maxwell) ex-air hostess who, when prompted, informs us in song that ‘shes had a little work done’ and sings it brilliantly. Then Jessie, played at this performance by Pauline Daniels, the retired school teacher shows us that being of a certain age is just a number and you shouldn’t let numbers on your cake stop you from trying new things as she sings What Age Expects. Julia Hills, the downtrodden Ruth, has to rely on her Russian friends (vodka) to enable her to cope with life outside the WI, she sings My Russian Friends and I and we all feel for her. When she turns up to the calendar shoot she is hilarious from entering the room to laying on a table of jam making equipment.
The scenes where we see the photo shoot taking place are so well done, expertly placed buns, flowers, knitting, trophy (won at the annual baking contest) and piano are enough to spare the dignity of the ladies and enable the audience to laugh, cry and applaud wholeheartedly at what these ‘girls’ achieve.
The cast is made up by (Marie the WI chair woman) played with excellence by Judy Holt and the younger cast members are Tyler Dobbs (Tommo), Danny Howker (Danny) and Isabel Caswell (Jenny) who all have their own story-lines interwoven into the plot. Ian Mercer, Ellie Leah, Claudia Bradley, Derek Elroy, Alan Stocks & Sebastian Abineri make up the remaining members of cast.
A fun loving, emotional, happy, sad and joyful piece of theatre, well worth seeing.