Calendar Girls The Musical

CALENDAR GIRLS - THE MUSICAL

Presented by

MELLOW DRAMATICS

Based on the hit 2003 film Calendar Girls, the musical written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth captures the essence of the story of everyday Yorkshire folk dealing with a life changing event, the true story of Angela Baker dealing with the passing of her husband John Baker diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in February 1998, who after a few months treatment sadly died aged 54.

Sparked by an idea from her life-long friend and fellow Women’s Institute member Chris, played by Helen Thrupp. Annie (Angela), Natalie Veasey decides to jazz up the WI’s traditional calendar offering by doing a nude one to raise money for a memorial settee to be placed in the family room of the Skipton General cancer ward where John was treated.

I must say Joe Bromfield’s portrayal of John was utterly engrossing, the poignancy of his first public outing with friends after chemotherapy hair loss was familiar to so many people.

All this magnificent cast were outstanding throughout the production. The warmth, enthusiasm, the sense of love and loss, pure raw emotion from everyone, it was truly moving emotionally to everyone, especially anyone who has ever lost a friend, loved one or relative to this most insidious and indiscriminate of diseases.

A simple set was all that was required, interspersed with flower barrows, tea trolleys, tables and chairs took the audience to wherever they needed to be.

Great opening number with a repeating theme throughout, the whole production was littered with great humour and interaction between friends, neighbours and colleagues. The script was an absolute gem of a show for such a skilled group as the Mellow Dramatics. The genius of Tim Firth’s beautifully presented lyrics gave you laugh out loud comedy in one line then seamlessly moving you to tears of sadness in the next.

Director Andrew Warner's crafted a perfect evening’s entertainment from this brilliant show. Aided and abetted by a fantastic team. The show, a very human story, was subtle, incredibly emotive, very well cast and utterly believable. You believed and cared for these characters, knowing they were real people having gone through this, telling their collective tale. The scene with the poses for the calendar was treated with such reverence, showing such bravery from the girls involved rightly applauded by the enraptured audience.

The Musical Director Tim Robinson, this may sound crazy. Tim blended the music so subtly as it was almost invisible. Sublimely so, there was parts which had traditional Yorkshire brass band elements corneting along in the background, mixed with raucous singalongs countered with beautiful emotional pieces. Superb band fabulously accompanied well-rehearsed and gifted vocalists; full cast vocal harmonies were stunning.

Hilarious, highly emotionally charged rollercoaster of a performance of an inspirational story. Amazing show indeed.

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