“Calendar Girls – The Musical”
Nottingham Theatre Royal

Having seen Calendar Girls on several occasions, the story is not new to me, so I wondered if making a musical out of such a wonderful, emotional and humanising story would work. I’ve been a fan of Gary Barlow’s work since Take That's first album “Take That And Party” on picture disc and have amassed everything he has released, so I knew that the songs would have that human emotion embedded in every song. I was not disappointed.

The story of the Calendar Girls began in 1998 when John Baker, husband of Angela Baker, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. John sadly passed away after just a few months of treatment, but in the months following their loss, Angela and her friends set about creating the now infamous calendar as something for Angela to focus on and, also, to prove John wrong – he said they’d never do it!

Through the sale of calendars, the group aimed to raise enough to buy a new sofa for the hospital where John was treated and were amazed when the calendar attracted international press attention. So far, they've raised millions for Bloodwise (formerly Lymphoma & Lymphoma Research), the blood cancer charity they have been long associated with.

The story has been added to and we see additional characters,and there's more comedy, but the original thread is never lost

The girls Sarah Jane Buckley, Sue Davaney, Julia Hills, Judy Holt, Lesley Joseph, Lisa Maxwell and Rebecca Storm are all excellent, as well as being brave and putting their trust in the choreography of the photo shoots, not to reveal anything, well that was the plan; whether it was planned or not, we did get to see more than we've seen before in "Calendar Girls" this time around.

What I didn't expect was some brilliant singing. You know when you see these women on TV and they're in sit coms, soaps, chat shows, you don't really envisage the wealth of theatre talent they have and it comes as a really pleasant surprise when this wonderful voice is let out on stage. This is why I love theatre because it never fails to bring to me new revelations.

Phil Corbitt (John), Sebastian Abineri (Colin), Ian Mercer ( Rod), Alan Stocks (Denis), Derek Elroy (Lawrence - the photographer), Pauline Daniels (Lady Cravenshire/Brenda Hulse) and Claudia Bradley (Miss Wilson) complete the core characters.

There were three new characters introduced in the form of the children. Tyler Dobbs (Tommo), Danny Howker (Danny) and Nottingham's very own Television Workshop star, Isabel Caswell (Jenny). All three lovely additions to the storyline and a nice balance to the other cast members.

Proving that he can write songs for musicals as well as chart topping hit records, Gary Barlow's songs are intricate, amusing and, while not being instantly catchy, bring the human element to every song here. He is a wordsmith and the songs tell stories and paint pictures.

The opening song "Yorkshire", "Scarborough", "Who Wants A Silent Night", "I've Had A Little Work Done" are little belters and balance well with some lovely ballads like "What Age Expects", "Kilimanjaro" and "My Russian Friend And I", which also have injections of comedy, just to make sure that your emotions get mixed messages. You will laugh, that's a given, but you may also find yourself welling up as well.

Tim Firth, who wrote the original film, "Calendar Girls" collaborated with Gary, and it's not often that you can rival or better a good thing, but these two have achieved just that.

The set is stunning; it's as if the back of the theatre had been taken off to reveal rural Yorkshire. it looked alive, as if you could walk to the back of the raked stage and enter the countryside through some magical portal.

I love "Calendar Girls" and I also love "Calendar Girls The Musical". Both give you a feeling of empowerment and also hope. It also gives the message out that whatever age you may be, don't do What Age Expects and be Mr or Mrs Conventional, you can be or do whatever you want.

“Calendar Girls The Musical” is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal, not just For One Night Only, but until Saturday 6 July.