Calendar Girls – Milton Keynes Theatre

Writer: Tim Firth

Director: Psyche Stott

Reviewer: Maggie Constable

The Public Reviews Rating:

Milton Keynes Theatre has established a solid reputation for quality shows, many on pre or post London tour, and Calendar Girls is no exception.

The film of the same name was highly successful and the London show has had a great run with some triumphant reviews and a range of strong female actors in the cast throughout its duration. This show is already a huge hit, having toured the regions and taken £1.4m in advance bookings, and where it succeeds more so than the film is in re-creating the spirit of the original calendar.

Calendar Girls is the true story of a group of Yorkshire women, friends from a W.I group, who come up with and carry through the idea of producing a very special calendar to raise money for charity and who bare more than just their souls to the world!

The set, designed by Rob Jones, is simple and effective. The minimalist approach to the backdrop Yorkshire hills -where the women do Tai Chi- works well. The sunflowers in the last scene are beautifully displayed. The costumes, designed by Emma Williams, work perfectly. Lighting, by Malcolm Rippeth, is subtle and sensitive, particularly in the more emotional scenes. Steve Perry’s musical arrangement cleverly weaves in some of the better-known hymns throughout.

Lynda Bellingham as Chris, who has recently returned to the show from a break for Strictly Come Dancing, gives a strong and convincing performance and delivers some great one-liners. The scene where she gives a thank you speech about her cake is well written and here she demonstrates her comic timing. She is at her best in the funnier aspects of her role.

Letitia Dean as Cora gives us a gutsy performance, with a credible accent, a performance which gets even better as the show goes on. She is a natural at humour, not something we saw much of in Eastenders! Colin Tarrant, playing John, is nicely understated and therefore so much more believable, especially in the sadder moments of the show. I remain less convinced by Michael Peluso as the photographer, Lawrence, but a difficult task for him amongst all those formidable women actors! Lawrence’s school teacher, Jessie, played by Judith Barker (of Coronation Street fame) is a great part and one which the actor clearly relishes. She has great comic physicality. Hannah Waterman (Ruth) is at her best in the scene with the beauty therapist and certainly got her biggest laugh at that point. I feel she underplays her part at times, even allowing for the timid character.

The scene which the women read out all the fan/thank you letters which had been sent to them is really well acted, sensitively staged and very poignant, helped by the music and lighting. It is a particularly moving scene, as evidenced by the hush in the audience at the end of it. By contrast, the sequence where they stage the nude photos is appealingly silly and lead to roars of laughter amongst the audience.

A thoroughly entertaining evening with some genuinely funny and affecting moments which has the audience and the actors united in a communal experience. Well worth the visit