Calendar Girls the Musical

Although we all saw the play Calendar Girls several years ago, this was my first opportunity for the revamped musical with the delightful and different score, musically under the baton of Samantha Ashby (and her excellent band), offering the named roles a chance to exploit their characters and for the company to enjoy some excellent harmonies (some very good voices here).

A very clever and imaginative minimal set on such a small stage really presenting the Yorkshire countryside and the other venues required for this poignant true story. Director Sharon Fox managed her large cast of the village and brought out the girls into their respective characters with well-drawn lines, we knew the story from the play, now enhanced by the music.

The centre of this play depends on the friendship of Chris and Annie and certainly Sky Carver and Christina Attridge had that special something in their relationship, that spark that burnt true and lifted the action and feelings and infected the whole cast into something special.

Their friends in WI: Cora (Alex Rasberry) with huge voice of rhythm and jazz and problems with son, Jessie (Carol Storey) the retired school teacher and knitter, Celia (Ellen Greenway) the ex-air hostess who fears a bad influence on her husband’s golf club, and Ellen (Rebecca Pooley) who has trepidation on doing anything different, were all drawn with style in their characterisations and relationships during the action. And Marie (Wendy Fisher) tried to control in the WI.

Excellent support from the three main youngsters Danny (Logan Petterson-Cooper), Tommo (Tim Webster), and Jenny (Keira Attridge) with their relationships to the adults and strong singing voices (a look to the future).

On the male side, Lawrence (Josh Chilvers) as the photographer caught the nervousness as he worked with the ladies, a sympathetic performance. Strong Yorkshire presentation from the flower man Rod (Richard Tree) and good comedy touches, mates Colin (John West) and Denis (Chris Fox) in great support of each other in a true Yorkshire men’s fashion for the village.

A sympathetic, thoughtful, strong representation of that most important role, and fulcrum of action in Anthony Maley’s acting of John, and his relationship with Annie so poignant, and the thoughts of all those potted sunflowers growing with profusion on the hills.

But above all this was a true company production with lots of action for the ensemble support to the principals, presented with energy and sympathy and love and highly professional standard to the pleasure of the capacity audience (even on a matinee).

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