Bare naked bliss: Calendar girls just wanna have fun.
Laughter, tears and a compelling storyline – The timeless tale was whipped up like the perfectly baked WI cake.
Based around the premise that the last phase of life is the most glorious, the all-star cast set about proving that it can also be the funniest and boy did they pull it off.
Featuring Elaine C Smith, Jennifer Ellison, Denise Black and a whole array of other familiar faces, the witty script and laugh out loud one-liners were incorporated seamlessly into the poignant real-life story about a group of WI women in Yorkshire who revealed all for their calendar in a bid to raise money for a new settee at the cancer unit in the local hospital.
Opening with the shattering news that Annie’s husband John had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, the narrative moves swiftly through life in the sleepy postcard village of Napley, using the Christmas and spring fairs as the perfect backdrop to make light of all the trivialness of WI festivities and provide some brilliant comedy moments.
Following John’s death, the women decide to transform their ordinary annual calendar into the extraordinary as they add a little sugar and spice and pose nude in a respectable WI kind of way.
DID YOU KNOW:
- Why Elaine would be thrilled to play Susan Boyle
- Why supporting leukaemia charities is close to the Rab C. Nesbitt stars heart
- Why revealing all in Calendar Girls was a 'skoosh' for the Scot
The best moment of the show had to go to the artistically directed photo shoot at the end of the first half.
Jennifer Ellison, whose younger years had until that point looked a little out of place, came into her own in the part of Celia, working the camera and leaving the photographer, played by former Coronation Street actor Bruno Langley, speechless as the audience howled at her moment in the spotlight.
Elaine C Smith’s Glasgow patter was also an instant hit with her home audience but Rachel Lumberg stole the show as she moved from the goody-two-shoes insecure Ruth to a strong-minded woman who (after a whisky or two) struck a crowd-pleasing pose.
Calendar Girls. Until August 28. The Kings Theatre on 0844 871 7627
