CityLife

Calendar Girls

NAKED TRUTH: Gaynor Faye, Patricia Hodge, Sian Phillips, Lynda Bellingham, Elaine C Smith and Julia Hills

DO you want the good news or the bad news?

The bad news is that this stage version of Calendar Girls is completely sold out.

The good news is that booking is already open for its return on March
16 next year, prior to London's West End.

Why such a  demand for tickets? You may remember the popular film, starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, with screenplay by Tim Firth, which became an unexpected box-office success, presumably because it's about girl-power wrapped up in a heart-warming, though poignant, story about sisterhood.

If you haven't seen the film, you may have read the newspaper reports about the  group of women from a Yorkshire branch of the Women's Institute who forsake making jam and singing Jerusalem to pose nude for a charity calendar.

The money was intended to buy a new couch for the local cancer
ward where the husband of one of their members was nursed in the final stages of leukaemia. The calendar became a global success.

Fresh

Firth has tried to keep this stage version fresh, however the first night
performance barely lasted five minutes before the curtain was rung down because of a technical fault.

However, the mainly female audience was a forgiving lot and, undaunted by a delay of 35 minutes, a loss of certain effects and a deal of emotional manipulation, cheered when it restarted, cheered when the women undressed and cheered at the end.

A starry cast includes the understated Patricia Hodge, the elegant Sian Phillips, Lynda Bellingham (Loose Women)  Gaynor Faye (Fat Friends) Elaine C Smith (Rab C Nesbitt) and Julia Hills who play her friends whilst our own Brigit Forsyth represents the opposition.

If it sounds your cup of tea, see it before you have to pay West End
prices.

Calendar Girls is at The Lowry until Saturday, October 25. Please contact box-office to confirm ticket availability. The show returns for a week from March 16 next year, with tickets on sale now.