Tag Archives: Calendar Girls

Writers:  Gary Barlow and Tim Firth Design: Robert Jones Musical Staging: Lucy Hind Director: Matt Ryan Orchestrations: Steve Parry Reviewer: Rob Atkinson To judge a musical theatre rendition of a story against its original movie production, or even against the in-between incarnation of a stage play, is to risk comparing chalk with cheese; they’re simply different animals with different types ...

Reviewer: Fraser MacDonald Fresh from its run at The Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End, Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s newly christened Calendar Girls The Musical (formerly The Girls) delivers its cast recording ahead of a UK-wide tour. The sickly-sweet tale of Yorkshire women baring all to raise funds for Annie’s leukaemia-stricken husband is familiar to most from the 2003 ...

A Village Hall isn’t the usual place to launch a major new musical, but today Gary Barlow and Tim Firth visited Burnsall Village Hall to announce that their new musical The Girls will premiere at The Grand Theatre Leeds in November and then play The Lowry Theatre in January 2016 Burnsall in Yorkshire is where the original story began and ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Jack Ryder Reviewer: Glen Pearce [rating:4.5]   In just nine years Calendar Girls has become something of an institution. The real life events of a Yorkshire WI group inspiring a film and then a stage play that became the fastest selling tour in UK theatre history. All good things must come to an end, though, and ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Jack Ryder Reviewer: Selwyn Knight [rating:4] Few people can be unaware of the story of the Calendar Girls: the death in 1998 of John Baker from non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the husband of one of the ladies of the Rylstone &District Women's Institute, inspires her and her friends to produce the Alternative WI Calendar of 2000. They became ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Kay Friars Reviewer: Glen Pearce [rating:3.5] When a group of WI members in a small Yorkshire town decided to create an ‘alternative’ charity calendar, little did they realise the impact that move would have. Instead of views of churches and bridges, the plucky women decide to bare (nearly) all for a calendar to raise money for ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Elizabeth Purcell Reviewer: Mark Clegg [rating:4] How a simple idea can blossom into a cultural phenomenon is certainly something to ponder. The notion of a group of ordinary ladies from a local Women’s Institute producing a nude calendar using themselves as models became headline news around the world. This in turn spawned a hugely successful film, ...

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Jack Ryder Reviewer: Shane Morgan [rating: 4] I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land. So ends the hymn often sung in Calendar Girls and so too frames the theme of the play. Anyone familiar with the story ...