This time last week it was a gloriously sunny day and I was off to London with my pal to see Gary Barlow and Tim Firth’s new show, The Girls Musical. Based on the play and subsequent film written by Tim, his childhood pal Gary came on board to write some tunes as they turned this fantastic story, show and film into something spectacular for the West End stage and this was about as much as I knew of the musical prior to last weekend.
As my friend and I walked through a sun soaked Hyde Park towards theatre district she told me that someone she knew had been to see it the previous week and had raved about it rather strongly. I sort of groaned a little at this because when something is built up like that I generally find there’s a disappointment somewhere but she reassured me that her friend had been adamant, this was a show to be seen!
Rather splendidly, she wasn’t wrong!
We sat in that theatre for the next two and a half hours on an emotional roller coaster experiencing everything from elation to deep sadness simply by watching the story unfold. This is a story I know, this is a story we ALL know unless we’ve been hidden under a rock. Real life friends Chris and Annie raise money for their local hospital to have a decent couch for relatives to sit on after Annie’s husband passes away from cancer. As members of the Women’s Institute they create a calendar for the W.I but a calendar with a difference… The ladies, although regular W.I folk, knitters, bun bakers, creative gardeners and the like… All pose in their birthday suits within their natural W.I habitat… Watch the clip here:
What that very short synopsis doesn’t tell you is how this musical performance portrays the story. Which is purely through love. I think from the beginning moments I believed in the love and this is what really set the scene, the story and made me thoroughly buy into the emotion of it all. John and Annie’s love, Chris and Annie’s love and then, eventually, the love all the characters had for their sons, their partners and ultimately, each other. And with love comes all the other emotions…
My friend and I were crying by the end of the first act and by the final curtain we were absolute messes. But not just that, a theatre experience would be rather hard work if it brought you down but not out the other side and this one, gosh it more than brought us back up again. The Girls is a positive, uplifting experience which not only makes you weep with the sadness of the story and the heartbreak but has you laughing, not just chuckling, proper belly laughing all the way through. The cleverness of the writing (and the acting) to be able to bring you up with laughter just a moment after you’ve been on the floor with tears is incredible, so difficult to do but these guys have it on the head!
The singing, the music… It’s wonderful and some powerful voices made it absolutely blow me away but… I wouldn’t say it was all about the music and that was it. The music was as wonderful as you’d want it to be with a very definite Gary Barlow sound to it but it didn’t take precedence. Neither did it sit in the background… Everything was very much on an even keel and no one thing would have worked without the others. This goes for the script, the casting, the scenery, direction… Everything – I’m talking about a real ensemble piece! I usually mention which of the performances I enjoyed the most when I review a show but it’s on the tip of my tongue to mention pretty much all of them so I shan’t, it would take too long. I shall just say that the casting was perfect. They have a lot of shows to perform with three matinee performances throughout the week so it wasn’t surprising that the actress playing Annie was different for our show but… I would not have realised this until I looked in the programme afterwards and I can only summise that regardless of cast changes your experience will remain the same.
This was some powerful show with too much going for it to be closing in July. Yet somehow it is… I don’t get that? I really don’t and I have to say in light of that fact that you must go and you must go now before you lose the chance. I want to go back… I feel like I want everyone I know to go and see it quickly because it’s not fair that it’s closing. CLOSING? What?!
I’ve seen too many GREAT musicals in the West End close without trace, never to be heard of again and it’s just so sad. All that work, all that talent… All that enjoyment! The thought that droves will flock to see some of the things that remain (The Thriller musical for one is probably one of the poorest shows I have ever seen on a stage anywhere least of all on Shaftesbury Avenue where it has NO place at ALL yet there it stays year after year enticing tourists to part with their money and watch its drivel – I am a Michael Jackson fan but really, this is NOT a show to go and see. It depresses me even just seeing the sign above the theatre) and yet this show is going to be gone in just 6 weeks?!
I still feel sad some year and a half on after From Here To Eternity closed… It was, like The Girls, simply fabulous. Great cast, brilliant songs… (I still listen to them in my car) and yet it vanished because of poor ticket sales… Such a shame. I’ve no idea if the impending closure of The Girls is due to the same but come on… Buy yours now before the chance is gone for good. Forget if you’re a Take That fan or not, it’s not relevant. Forget if you know the story, like or dislike the film, think it will be too sad, too boring, too vanilla, too much for women… None of that applies, take it from one who has seen. EVERYONE will enjoy this show. EVERYONE! And the fact is that you only have until July to do it so go on… Don’t miss out.
I’d just like to add one more thing, a small detail with a big difference. A certain amount from ticket sales is donated to the charity which the original Calendar Girls started raising for in memory of the real John who passed away from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer – somehow I originally typed ‘a bloody cancer’ and yes, actually that is rather apt. Bloody cancer. The emotions from this show I think we can all relate to, we have all lost someone to a bloody awful cancer and need to do everything we can to find a cure, eradication, oh gosh anything to make it just go away. Just one more reason, as if it needed anything extra, for The Girls to continue… The charity is now known as Bloodwise and if you click on the link you will find other ways to donate too. When you go to the show the cast will also come out with buckets afterwards to raise even more money and this means you will also get to meet them as did we. On our particular performance, which happened just after the atrocious attack in Manchester they switched to collecting for Love Manchester just for the moment which again, is highly worthy and thank you to them for this.
Book tickets here for evening performances Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm and matinee performances at 2.30pm, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The show ends on the 15th July 2017 and ticket prices range from £19.50.
I was invited to see the show in return for an honest review – all I can say is that you MUST see this before the run ends, it makes me so sad to think it will only be on for a few more weeks when it is, really and truly, one of the best things I have ever seen in the West end.
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