Review of Calendar Girls at Shanklin Theatre

While the first half seemed rather slow, the second half was excellent and very well executed.

We all know the true story of the women from Knapely WI in Yorkshire, who decided to raise money for a good cause by posing nude for a calendar, with perfectly positioned cream buns and watering cans sparing the blushes.

The story got adapted into a film in 2003 and since then it has been turned into a musical by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth.

A scene from Calendar Girls. (Image: Max Events)

However, the songs weren't as catchy as anything performed by Take That - in fact they were rather underwhelming.

Luckily, this production by Max Events and Curtain Call Creative had a lot of local talent to rely on, to give this musical the boost it needed.

Top work as always from musical director Andrew Woodford, director Tony Wright and choreographer Jake Alabaster, and whoever picked the brilliant cast.

Particularly strong were Libby Pike as Chris (fantastic stage presence and warmth), Kim Ball as Annie (portrayed the raw emotion of being devastatingly widowed heartbreakingly well), and Amanda Barnley as the glamorous Celia (funny and brilliantly acted).

Even the smaller walk-on roles had star quality (Vivien Russell, that's you!).

The younger performers shone too and I predict bright futures for the confident and very watchable Enid Rees, Alfie Luke and Tom Thorne.

The story of Calendar Girls started with a charitable idea and still continues helping good causes to this day. At Shanklin Theatre, the show was in aid of Mountbatten.

The sunflowers dotted throughout the play (Mountbatten's symbol), and the very poignant scenes of loss, had a huge affect on the audience - I could hear sobbing from my seat. It was beautifully but emotively done.

And as for the 'nude' scenes I have nothing but huge admiration for everyone involved.

It was quite a feat to carry out these scenes so successfully - there's a fine line between not showing enough and therefore not really capturing the whole point of the play, and the complete disaster of an inadvertent slip in front of a live audience!

This is where the brilliant direction by Tony Wright triumphed, as the cast worked together to perfect the trickiest of scenes.