Calendar Girls The Musical

This was my first visit to Beccles Public Hall to see a show presented by WLOG and to say it was very good is a huge understatement… WLOG production of Calendar Girls – The Musical was phenomenal! The entire show from start to finish was executed brilliantly well, bringing humour, pathos and performed to a very high standard indeed. The entire WLOG community should feel rightly proud of what they have achieved with this show.

As we were shown to our seats by the friendly Front of House team, there was a real buzz of excitement and expectation among the sold-out audience. Calendar Girls The Musical featured a cast of twenty-four talented performers. The audience were very engaged and clearly loved the show and everything was applauded and cheered enthusiastically and rightly so!

The stage was used well, with characters entering via various doors and the set design was simple yet effective. For this show, WLOG used a large screen to display scenery of Yorkshire, and this worked very well indeed. Props were brought onto the stage as necessary by backstage crew and cast members and scene changes took place fluently and seamlessly. The sound effects and lighting were particularly good and worked extremely well. The music was provided by five very talented musicians: Alex Rimell, Jonathan Gracie, Neil Austin, Ruth Gilks and Robert Lockwood. The band played the music brilliantly with exactly the right volume needed and kept the pace of this musical at the right speed. The costumes and make up were spot on and looked fantastic; congratulations to everyone concerned with this aspect of the production.

The casting of all the characters was incredibly good and one of the many major strengths of this production was the fact that every member of the talented cast clearly enjoyed their roles and wanted to be on stage; they all had incredible stage presence, and they acted, sang, danced and reacted with a real love for this show. Director Sam Fennelly is to be hugely congratulated for the way she directed this incredible show; she cast it superbly well and every aspect of this production was of an incredibly high quality.

In my usual reviews, I name certain actors who stood out on the night I reviewed the show, but I have to say that every character stood out and played their part superbly well. Having said that, the six ladies who were the main Calendar Girls were outstanding and the scene where they were photographed for the calendar must be mentioned for the way it was brilliantly staged with laugh out loud moments of humour and real, beautiful tenderness; this scene epitomised the triumph of this incredible show, and once again, the director and all of the cast should feel incredibly proud of themselves.

WLOG deserve exceedingly high praise for every aspect of this high-performance show. Another mention needs to go to the design of the programme which was excellent and professional. Everyone who was involved with Calendar Girls, The Musical was 100% engaged, reacting and singing, acting and dancing to an extremely high standard.

This was a fantastic show; I laughed out loud and shed a few tears at the wonderful acting and superb pathos of some of the musical numbers.

Once again, a huge well done to everyone concerned – I absolutely loved it!

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