Calendar Girls Musical - Tour 2023/4

[tlyon4784]

Sept 7, 2023 7:38:25 GMT Mark said:

Possibly one of my most disappointing nights at the theatre I’ve ever had, to the point that I was pretty angry upon leaving how they have turned this wonderful show into what I saw last night. This was/is one of my favourite shows - I saw the West End production 5 times including closing night. Enjoyed the first tour when it went out, and really enjoyed an am dram version my sister did earlier this year. What I saw last night was a shadow of what “The Girls” was that it’s almost unrecognisable.

Firstly - Tommo, Danny, Jenny (the three kids), the Mrs Wilson’s, Laurence (photographer), and Brenda (speech giver) have all been cut.
Here we have a cast of 9 - the 6 girls, Marie, and then John and and Annie’s husbands.

The opening number bears hardly any resemblance to “Yorkshire”
Who wants a silent night - cut
Of course with the characters gone, Protect me less and Girls are cut (including the ever funny Jaws/never see all of the shark line).

Did the performers make up for it? Well, no. I just felt zero warmth from anyone. And the vocals left an awful lot to be desired. Even the calendar scene only triggered light chuckles and applause from the audience. A real let down.

This show was my favourite piece since I saw it in Leeds to Salford and its West End run. I lost count to how many times I saw it and I still support the cast in other shows. I can’t believe they’ve ruined this beautiful show. Gutted 😢

[Deleted]

Really wish I read the reviews before I booked for Salford in the presale this morning - at least I got 2-4-1 so not splashing out too much for a cut down show.

[longinthetooth]

This was one of my favourite shows too. So glad I stuck with the memory and didn't book for this version.

[Dr Tom]

I nipped to Windsor to see this yesterday. Such a pleasant place to walk around, especially in the summer, although I'm always shocked how early the shops close for a tourist destination.

My feeling is it's best to think of this as an entirely new musical (with a new name) which just happens to share some songs, characters and ideas from a previous musical.

As such, I found it quite enjoyable, and I have to say how nice it is that Bill Kenwright has found work for so many of the leads who have added to his Blood Brothers fortunes. It's also impressive how the production has been reworked so this could slot straight into The Other Palace if a vacancy there becomes available.

As others have said, this is performed by a cast of seven women and two men (there are also four understudies who appear in the background for a minute or two). For those people who dislike children on stage, you'll be pleased to know that those elements have been removed, although children are mentioned verbally in passing. The leads are all serviceable. Levels of singing proficiency and comedic acting ability vary. Everything is performed in an outer shell representing the village hall, with the main props being folding chairs, bowls of fruit, sticky buns and the like. Occasionally, external scenes are played at the front of the stage, for example with a motorway sign descending (and the chairs reused) to suggest that the women are in a car.

I do think that the final photoshoot scene was done well.

Now, I only saw the previous production once, so I don't remember all of the details, but this is clearly very scaled back. It may be essential to give this a future life, but nothing really got the audience to react with anything more than polite applause. I quite enjoyed the evening, but I also saw the show with a heavily discounted ticket (with a clear view in the rear Stalls). I don't feel the need to see this again on tour, but I suspect this will sell well based on name value and that many will enjoy it, particularly if they didn't see the previous version of the musical.

[hannechalk]

I went to see it in Liverpool last night and really enjoyed it!

Lyn Paul was off, so I'm going again on Saturday hoping to catch her.

And otherwise I'll have a good time watching the very animated Jordan Alexander as MD, as I'll be sat just behind him.

I didn't see the last production, so I can't compare.

It wasn't a sell out at the Empire, but everyone seemed to enjoy it!

[Rozzi Rainbow]

I never saw this in the West End, but saw two excellent amateur productions last year. I was really looking forward to this tour, but was a bit put off reading the bad reviews above, and at one point decided not to go. I then realised I do enjoy a day out at the theatre, and there wasn't anything else I would rather have done yesterday instead, so I thought I'd give this a go, without any high expectations and make up my own mind on it.

I'm so pleased I did decide to go as I thought it was excellent! I don't know the show well enough to know all the bits that have changed. I thought it took a while to get going, and the big rousing version of Yorkshire is now in the second half - the version as the opening number is interspersed with Jerusalem, which is included more than previously.

I thought all the cast were excellent, especially Amy Robbins. I would happily go and see this again if I could fit it in. It really is a feel-good show.

[Being Alive]

New cast for 2024

Laurie Brett (EastEnders),
Helen Pearson (Hollyoaks),
Samantha Seager (Coronation Street),
Maureen Nolan (The Nolans, Blood Brothers),
Lyn Paul (The New Seekers, Blood Brothers),
Honeysuckle Weeks (Foyle’s War).

Quite like Laurie Brett actually - although i see her more as a Chris than an Annie

[Jonnyboy]

Just back from The Lowry. I booked this after becoming obsessed with the soundtrack and as soon as it started I knew something was wrong. I didn’t realise this was a new version of it.

They’ve BUTCHERED it! Whole songs cut. Yorkshire, a glorious track, has been reduced to several repeated choruses dotted throughout the show. The Philip Larkin poem song has gone. Characters have gone. When I looked it up it advertised as having *more songs* this version. WHATTT?!!!

It was an okay evening. Some voices really weren’t great.

Some songs were replaced by clips of dialogue. Then in the songs they kept some of the lyrics were changed to much less funnier lines.

WHY?!

I understand a new version might be pared back a little but this is ridiculous.

[zsazsa]

Oh my god, what have they done to this show?

This rewrite is abysmal. A show I loved has been ruined.

[Deleted]

I saw this when it was in the Lowry, and while I enjoyed the show, it did hurt how much ch they reduced this show with whole characters and songs cut.

[benj]

I saw this in Woking last night with my partner and we both gave it a generous 2 stars. I didn’t see the west end version or the previous tour, so have nothing to compare it to, but I found the first act really dull and just didn’t care about any of the characters. There’s no character development, songs come out of nowhere and make zero sense and the vocals, especially from the actress playing Annie, were poor. The second act was better, but again, the pacing was completely off and there were lots of WTF moments from my partner who was just annoyed at the whole thing by the end. The calendar shoot was done well, but that’s about it.
There’s a potentially good show in there somewhere.
The New Victoria Theatre was about a 1/4 full at best.