Calendar Girls the Musical -The Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Writers: Gary Barlow and Tim Firth based upon the play by the latter and the film written by Firth and Juliette Towhidi

Director: Paul Robinson

The Octagon Theatre, Bolton, being theatre-in-the-round, offers audiences the opportunity to get close to the actors onstage and view them from every angle. This presents a particular challenge for the cast of Calendar Girls the Musical as a major plot point involves the characters trying to discreetly pose naked.

Yorkshire’s Knapely Women’s Institute is a safe small ‘c’ conservative body whose membership politely endures awful presentations on the history of tea towels and maintains the traditions of making plumb jam and cakes. When John (Neil Moors), husband of Annie (Christina Meehan) undergoes treatment for leukaemia she is appalled by the poor condition of the sofa in the hospital waiting room. Her friend Chris (Karen Holmes) proposes a novel way of raising funds for a replacement sofa – members of the Institute should pose for a calendar in which they undertake traditional activities whilst posing in the nude.

Director Paul Robinson builds the characters into a community and, in so doing, makes a practical, but very moving, demonstration of the value of people working together to achieve a common goal. The cast are actor-musicians and so, when not performing centre stage, may be in the background playing an instrument. There is a strong chemistry between the cast members to the extent their banter sounds natural, close to ad-libbed. There is a giddy sense of anarchy, adults behaving like a gang of naughty school pupils and choosing to grow older disgracefully- to the consternation of their children.

Yet Robinson does not ignore the less comedic aspects of the musical. Christina Meehan becomes the emotional centre of the play with Annie isolated, heartbreakingly  awaiting reports of her husband’s medical condition and trying to convince herself , against all odds, the news will be good. Neil Moors makes a dignified exit from the play and gets to deliver one of the key lines in the dialogue.

An issue with established storylines which are adapted into musicals is that the additional of songs and musical solos for the characters extends the running time to an uncomfortable length. This is the case with Calendar Girls the Musical where sub plots featuring abusive boyfriends or snobbishly aspirational husbands are retained from the original film but feel so minor as to have little impact.

Some of the beneficiaries of the approach of including so many sub plots are The Octagon Theatre’s Young Company. Billy Currid, Charlie France and Grace Pearce, as the sons and daughters of the Institute members, grab with both hands the opportunity to show their talents and make a strong impression.

It takes some time for the musical to reach the key scene of the characters posing for the calendar but it is worth the wait. Director Robinson tantalises members of the audience by situating each pose in a different part of the circular stage. The cast emerge, strip-tease style, from behind concealing reflective photographic mirrors. There is a subtle but noticeable sense that the poses are becoming, depending upon your perception, more risqué or more comically ridiculous as the scene progresses climaxing (so to speak) in a defiant and hilariously challenging pose from Karen Holmes. There is a running joke that Rachel Hammond and Angela Caesar, as the Wilson Sisters, are a constant but unspeaking presence and their unexpected participation in the photographic shoot brings the house down.

Despite the leisurely pacing it is hard to resist the charm of Calendar Girls the Musical. The current production is tribute to the everyday heroism of people working together, in a characteristically eccentric English manner, to resolve a common problem.

Runs until 31st October 2026