Calendar Girls, The Musical

Report

Author: Les Smith

With the stage set showing the beautiful rolling hills and dales of the Yorkshire countryside everything was in place for an enjoyable show, and we were not disappointed.

The show obviously revolves around the ladies from the Knapely Women’s Institute who decide to do some fundraising following the premature death of one of its member’s husband due to Leukaemia. However, they were not satisfied with their usual fundraising schemes of making jam etc. so they decided to make a nuda calendar featuring themselves as the models.

The story opens with John Clarke and his fellow villagers singing about their beloved Yorkshire, John was played with empathy by Jon Crebbin, and we see him gradually submitting to the ravages of this terrible disease, John was supported by his wife Annie played by Suzy Hellowell who was able to get every ounce of comedy, pathos, anger and tenderness out of the character.

Initially the ladies of the WI were trying to raise the money for a new settee in the relative’s room at Skipton General Hospital as the one they had was not in the least bit comfortable, however as we all know the calendar was such a hit, they ended up raising around £6,000,000 for Leukaemia research.

John had a love of flowers which he grew on his allotment, his favourite being the sunflower which was able to grow to a magnificent height and develop a grand yellow flower at its head.

The idea of the calendar came from Annie’s friend, Chris played by Sam Griffiths, however her idea was not met with much enthusiasm by her friends and especially by the newly appointed Chair of the WI Marie played to the full by Michelle Stevenson, Chris was a feisty woman, as indeed were all the ladies of Knapely WI so she was not going to let this self-appointed Marie get the upper hand.

As the story moves on, we see the other members disagreeing with Chris’ idea which provides some really touching moments as they all show what true friendship means to each other. All the ladies have their own stories which appear throughout the production and show that life may not be as they all appear on the outside.

Chris and her husband, Rod, played perfectly by Adrian Wales have a son who is vying to be the head boy at his school, Danny, played by Ben Goulding was excellent, his song, I’m a Virgin which he sings with his mate Tommo, played by Isaac Schofield was very, very funny. Danny also spots a new girl in school, Jenny, played by Poppy Middleton, another feisty female who it seems has been excluded from her rather posh school. Jenny entices Danny with drink which of course leads to him becoming extremely drunk just at the point of the announcement for the head boy is to be made. Ben was able to show off his fine acting skills in this scene which also leads to his mum finding out that Jenny is in fact Marie’s daughter.

Whilst Chris is trying to get her fellow WI members on board for the calendar she decides to “bear all” at the top of the local hill in the village and asks, “Can you see my nipples?” unfortunately this coincides with her son and his school friends walking past much to the enjoyment of the audience.

Gradually one by one the rest of the WI agree to take part in the calendar expect of course for Marie who tells them she will have to announce it at the annual convention where it will be thrown out. Not to be outdone Chris and the rest of the team decide they will make the announcement; the calendar is passed, and the rest is history as they say.

The other members of the WI, Jessie played by Elaine Thomson, as the older person in the house, Elaine was able to play the mother hen to the rest of the members and had some extremely funny scenes especially when she agreed to take part as long as there were “no front bottoms” showing.

One of the members of the WI was a rather posh Celia, played by Kimberley Bates, Celia was an ex-Air Hostess and was often seen playing golf with her husband. There had been rumours around the village that she had had some work done to enhance her attributes. Celia finally came clean and told her friends, yes, she has had the work done in her song, “So I’ve had a Little Work Done” this was hilarious and almost brought the house down.

Cora is the daughter of the local Vicar and also is an unmarried mother to Tommo, she had told everyone for years that Tommo’s father was a classical musician, however it turns out he was a blues player but had cooked up the story to please her father. Cora enters a cake in the local fete and is astounded when she wins as she had not baked it but bought it from M & S, another side-splitting scene.

The scene which involves the taking of the photos for the calendar is extremely funny with the ladies one by one bearing all in readiness for Lawrence, the photographer played by Tom Widdup to take the photos.

The photos are taken but they realise they do not have anyone for one of the months, Ruth, played by Melanie Murray had said from the start she was not going to take part, however following an hilarious scene with “her Russian friend” she enters the stage totally drunk and agrees to bear all.

Each week when the WI meet their tea and coffee is served by the two Miss Wilsons, who only ever say “tea” or “coffee”, these ladies are the very typical WI members and were ably played by Gemma Bourke and Geraldine Mulligan, however when it came to the photo shoot, as true troopers they came to serve the drinks wearing only their pinafores, another very funny scene.

As I mentioned earlier this show is interspersed with scenes of great comedy and also pathos and it does need actors who are able to pull it off in each scene to get the full effect, here there was no doubt about it as everyone involved.

There were other actors on the stage this week to bring the full cast together and add to the enjoyment of the audience. These were Robert Broadbent as Colin, Richard Sykes as Denis, Natasha Wolstenholme as Lady C, Lisa Wales as a WI friend and Matthew Armitage as a college pal.

Congratulations to everyone involved, especially Michael Hellawell, Director and Robert Durkin, Musical Director for their foresight and vision to bring this from page to stage.