Review Round-up: Do Critics Get Calendar Girls?

| London's West End |

21 April 2009

Despite the lack of
an official press night (See The Goss,
15 Apr 2009), critics have been steadily giving their views on the
West End transfer of {Calendar
Girls::L1993370294}
over the course of the past few days.

The production,
which premiered in Chichester last September before embarking on a
hugely successful national tour, has landed at the West End’s Noel
Coward theatre, where last night it hosted a celebrity charity gala
night, attended by several of the original girls (See Today’s Photos).

{Calendar
Girls::L1993370294}, adapted by Tim
Firth from his screenplay for the hit 2003 film, tells the real-life
story of the members of a Yorkshire chapter of the Women’s
Institute who decide to pose nude for a charity calendar. The cast
includes Patricia Hodge, Lynda Bellingham, Sian Phillips,
Elaine C Smith, Gaynor Faye, Julia Hills and Brigit Forsyth.

There was a
general consensus among critics that {Calendar
Girls::L1993370294}, despite
its warmth and good intentions, was, in the words of The
Times’ Dominic Maxwell, “not quite the full monty” in
dramatic terms. However, Whatsonstage.com’s Michael Coveney, who also
reviewed the show in Chichester, observed the production is
“considerably improved” since its regional premiere, and makes
for a “fairly good popular night out”. But this was about as
strong as the plaudits got. For most, the “predictable” and
“formulaic” structure was a problem, despite the “divine”
disrobing scene and some accomplished performances from the
principals.

**
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GIRLS
on 29 April 2009
–
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–
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**

Michael
Coveney on Whatsonstage.com
(three stars) – “Hamish McColl’s production, once
you’ve made a deal with the relentless coarseness of the acting,
settles into a perfectly agreeable rhythm and is in fact considerably
improved since last autumn. The second act has been tightened up, the
shooting of the near-nude, not naked, poses at the end of the first
act has acquired a fairly decent comic momentum, Robert Jones’
colourful design is cosily reassuring, and the central stand-off
between Lynda Bellingham’s attention-seeking florist’s wife and
Patricia Hodge’s beautifully glum widow – her husband’s
demise has prompted the charity action – is now far less irritating
… It all makes for a fairly good popular night out, and I may not
be in so much dread after all of the inevitable musical, probably the
story’s best potential manifestation.”

Dominic
Maxwell in The Times (two stars) “If
you can accept the overfamiliarity of Firth’s sitcom posse of
squares, prudes, wisecrackers, bored beauties and sassy old ladies,
then some of the comedy is pretty serviceable. It’s snappily
directed by Hamish McColl, whose staging of the pivotal photoshoot –
in which they have nothing but iced buns, balls of wool and
marmalade-making equipment to maintain their dignity – is a
delight. But once {Calendar
Girls::L1993370294} has shown
us its knickers, it hasn’t got much left to offer … Part of the
show’s success is down to the way it raises issues – about
sexuality, illness, middle age – that don’t get confronted enough
on stage … As a story of Northerners finding themselves through
revealing themselves, it’s not quite the full
monty.”

Nicholas
de Jongh in the Evening Standard (three
stars) – “There must be a few, odd people – I am one – who missed
the film Calendar Girls and did not realise it was
inspired by a few women who have raised almost £2million for cancer
research since 1999. This astonishing achievement renders any
criticism of Tim Firth’s stage version of {Calendar
Girls::L1993370294} unkind
and perhaps superfluous since this comedy of English manners enjoys
more than £1.5million of advance ticket-sales. Even so, since
candour should be a critic’s constant companion, I need warn that
though the show is in part very good, what a small part it proves …
Yet you need watch {Calendar
Girls::L1993370294} with
critical faculties turned off. Far too much of it sprawls in an
aimless comedy-free void. Just 25 minutes of it are divine.”

Dominic
Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph (three
stars) “When you consider from what modest beginnings this mammoth,
mammary-baring phenomenon sprang ten years ago … you have to marvel
… Being fascinated by the improbable chain of events, though,
doesn’t mean one has to endorse this latest chapter in the story as
any kind of artistic achievement. Because once you look past the
originating good cause, as an evening of theatre this really is,
well, pants … What does the stage version offer that a night in
with the DVD and a bottle of wine can’t? Simply this: the chance to
see the leading ladies gamely – and fleetingly – disrobe for
those notoriously artful ‘nude’ poses. And frankly, that’s not
enough of a selling-point. It’s not the strip-scene – carried off
with teasing panache just before the interval curtain – that
demeans the actresses here, it’s the script.”

Sarah
Hemming in the Financial Times (three
stars) – “While this makes it an uplifting play, it does not make
it a great one. The drama is too formulaic and superficial for that,
the characters’ journeys too predictable … But the heart of the
story still comes over and it is hard to resist the warm, spirited
performances in Hamish McColl’s production. Patricia Hodge
brings grace and dignity to the widowed Annie, but also a steely
determination. She is quietly touching when the letters of affected
relatives drag her into another world. She is well matched by Lynda
Bellingham’s caustic, ebullient Chris. There are lovely
performances too from Elaine C Smith as the vicar’s daughter with
the naughty tattoo and Sian Phillips as the deceptively formal
ex-teacher.”

– by Theo Bosanquet & Katie
Blemler