Theatre News

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth's Calendar Girls musical tour casting announced

Find out who will be appearing in the production from April 2019

Sarah Jane Buckley, Lisa Maxwell, Rebecca Storm, Ruth Madoc, Judy Holt, Sue Daveney and Julia Hills
Sarah Jane Buckley, Lisa Maxwell, Rebecca Storm, Ruth Madoc, Judy Holt, Sue Daveney and Julia Hills
© John Swannell

New casting has been announced for the ongoing UK and Ireland tour of Calendar Girls.

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth's musical comedy, based on the true story and the award-winning play by Firth, will now star Sarah Jane Buckley (Blood Brothers) as Annie, Sue Devaney (Dinnerladies) as Cora, Julia Hills (Broadchurch) as Ruth, Judy Holt (Cold Feet) as Marie and Lisa Maxwell (Hollyoaks) as Celia.

Ruth Madoc and Rebecca Storm will continue to play Jessie and Chris respectively. The new cast will begin in Cliffs Pavilion in Southend on 23 April, with Karen Dunbar returning to the show for a run in Glasgow between 11 and 22 June.

Also in the cast are Phil Corbitt as John, Ian Mercer as Rod, Sebastian Aberneri as Colin, Alan Stocks as Denis, Derek Elroy as Lawrence, Pauline Daniels as Lady Cravenshire, Ellie Leah as Miss Wilson, Danny Howker as Danny, Isabel Caswell as Jenny and Tyler Dobbs as Tommo.

The award-winning production played in Leeds and Manchester before a six-month London season at the Phoenix Theatre in 2017. It went on to win the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Regional Production and was nominated for three Olivier Awards. The musical has direction by Matt Ryan, design by Robert Jones, comedy staging by Jos Houben, movement by Lucy Hind, lighting by Oliver Fenwick, orchestrations by Steve Parry and casting by Sarah Bird.

In 2019 the tour will visit Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Nottingham, Bristol, Plymouth, Eastbourne, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton, Northampton, Blackpool, Ipswich and Chester.