Review: Calendar Girls – The Musical at The Lowry is ‘rich with wit and emotional beats’

Co-written by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth and directed by Jonathan O’Boyle, Calendar Girls: The Musical tells the remarkable true story of the Yorkshire-based Women’s Institute that came together to take a series of nude calendar photos to raise money to replace a sentimental hospital sofa.

This was all to honour John Baker (Colin R. Campbell), husband to our protagonist Angela (Waterloo Road’s Laurie Brett).

Calendar Girls: The Musical

He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1998, spending the majority of his remaining few months in and out of hospital in the close-knit village of Cracoe.

The Calendar Girls’ found major success after releasing their calendar in 1999, selling 88,000 copies that year alone, and the story even appeared on the BBC and news channels across the globe

This eventually culminated in the 2003 film adaptation which took nearly £35 million at the box office and was quickly adapted into play, followed by a sublime musical, now revamped for a new audience.

The Calendar Girls’ story

Initially, I feared I was in for a bumpy road with this musical.

While the story behind the Calendar Girls is well known, I feel the catalyst for the calendar itself – John’s decreasing health and eventual death – isn’t presented as clearly as it could have been. Instead, we immediately rush into this story beat.

However, as the first act continues, we see the seasons of the year quite literally change before our eyes thanks to some impressive set design.

We witness John’s lymphoma begin to take its toll, leading to a scene that took my breath away as John’s narration morphs into Angela’s as she reads his goodbye note.

Laurie Brett as Angela

Laurie Brett is brilliant as Angela.

Where I felt her voice falter when trying to belt out the difficult notes, she more than makes up for it as she delivers a character that while stricken with grief, is determined to make a positive change.

Luckily, she has her best friend Chris (delightfully played by Samantha Seager) and the rest of the Women’s Institute to support her.

Although I feel the writing in Act One does a weak job at properly developing the rest of the WI – made up of Ruth, Jessie, Celia, Marie and Cora – co-writers Gary and Time provide a standout second act as soon as the intermission ends that really leaves you enthralled.

A special shoutout goes to Maureen Nolan, who delivers a fantastic and nuanced performance as Ruth, the optimistic baker who also happens to be the most resistant to taking part in the calendar photos.

She struggles with body image issues and alcoholism brought on by an unhappy marriage, and her solo ‘My Russian Friend and I’ is delivered with such angst, it moved me to tears.

Overall, I felt that the exploration into the innately feminist themes of owning your sexuality was one of the most intriguing parts of Calendar Girls.

Act Two delves into this more, not only through Ruth’s body image issues, but Chris’ is afraid of embarrassing her child by taking part in the scandalous photos and Jessie’s (Lyn Paul) song ‘What Age Expects’ critiques how society treats women as they grow older.

However, this also leads to what I enjoy least about the musical, which is the songs themselves.

The songs aren’t catchy enough for them to feel like earworms.

They include clever wordplay that gets a laugh from the audience but you cannot pick out a particular verse or complete song out of the fray that could be considered a standout, besides Ruth’s solo.

The song ‘Yorkshire’ which acts as a motif throughout the rest of the musical, representing time moving forward and even the monotony of life following the death of a loved one is enjoyable.

It also feels like a tribute to the historic Northern county itself, performed lovingly from the ensemble with thick Yorkshire accents.

Rich with dry wit, strong emotional beats and complex characters

Apart from that, I found myself mostly entertained by the story itself rather than its melodies. Calendar Girls is rich with dry wit, strong emotional beats and complex characters that will keep you invested and entertained for an evening, but it is unlikely that you will come out of the theatre thinking of many of the lyrics they belted out in the past two hours.

Calendar Girls: The Musical at The Lowry tickets

Calendar Girls: The Musical is showing at The Lowry from 16 to the 20 January.

Additionally, every performance continues to add to the millions already raised for Blood Cancer UK.

You can book the musical here.

Review by Jake Michael