Calendar Girls the musical (was: The Girls)

What i find interesting about this show, and especially because of the casting, is what Dom mentions above, who is the show being sold to? Thankfully there's no stunt casting or even a well known name in there, and i doubt fans of Joanna Riding and Claire Moore could fill the show for a month, so is the show the star? is it Gary Barlow? Is it the now well known story?

On a side note, i think the title is both clever and funny!

I was more distracted by Tim Firth. If anyone knows him . . .

In what way?

I think I hate any and every nickname for breasts haha.

I do agree with this. I am usually more keen to see celebrities in shows but I find it so nice how this has been cast with musical theatre stars and people that will do the show justice. The main 6 girls are all known for their roles in theatre so it's nice to see them all in a show together. 

People may complain at isn't casting but I think it's great and I'm sure people would still complain if the main girls were just ex soap stars

The quotes around "liking" brought to mind the image of someone clicking on them with a mouse.

Ah when I wrote that I meant that people on this board would complain if this was cast as just soap stars but they complain when it's all MT stars.

I personally like seeing celebrities on stage and the vast majority of the shows I've seen with celebs have been celebs who have done shows before or are trained for singing/acting or are just good in the role. There are some shows that work better with celebs than others like hairspray can have some good celebs in it but other shows like Miss Saigon or Les Mis need that powerful voice where you need people who are amazing at MT. Both Claire Sweeney and Carley Stenon have done multiple musicals are are good at singing, acting and performing so it's not like they have just cast somebody from eastenders who can't really even act let alone sing and perform. That's what I meant. It's lovely to see a group of MT stars in this show hence why I am so pleased about it and it means that they have been picked as they are the best of the best

I am delighted that they have cast musical theatre stars rather than celebrities. The presence of Claire Moore and Joanna Riding was almost enough to make me see this in Leeds. But not quite enough.

I suppose the difficulty now for casting and marketing is that going back into the 80s / early 90s you had people like Elaine Paige, Barbara Dixon, Michael Ball who were stars primarily for being in musical theatre. It was a genre of celebrity in its own right, and these were and still are well known. Now I struggle to think of anyone from the world of MT who has become a big celebrity purely because of that. There are plenty who have moved into theatre (or used the internet to promote themselves) from the world of Celebrity and also plenty of stars within the genre, but theatre as a whole doesn't appear to have the same crossover appeal that it once did in terms of creating celebrities. So any producer needs to make the choice of either casting musical theatre actors who can do the job brilliantly but the wider audience might not have heard of, or going down the celebrity route with mixed results.

I realise that is a huge generalisation and there will no doubt be plenty of examples of those who have become huge stars .....

Does it really matter whether or not West End actors are famous? All that matters is if they're good at their job. Actually I'm glad the West End is different in that regard. At least West End shows don't revolve around one performer.

.[/quote]Does it really matter whether or not West End actors are famous? All that matters is if they're good at their job. Actually I'm glad the West End is different in that regard. At least West End shows don't revolve around one performer.[/quote]


I completely agree on terms of show quality. My original point was that from a marketing point of view, having a star name (unless the show is the star) must be really helpful. That's why I really admire the casting of this show for going down the quality rather than household name route. Of course those of us on this board would tend to be the people "in the know" and are not reliant on having seen performers on the telly. The wider ticket buying public will probably not know who most of the performers are, and will be drawn in either by the story or Gary Barlow's name!

I'm surprised there is not more excitement on the board about this.

I am so impressed with the producers and their attitude to extortionate booking fees and premium prices.

I was lucky enough to see this in Leeds and it was brilliant. You're sobbing all the way through it - either from laughter or sadness. It managed to sell really well in Leeds and I know loads of friends who went who weren't particularly theatre fans and they really enjoyed it. As a woman on the verge of Middle age, then there are lots of ladies like myself who want to see something about them and their lives.

Take That played 41 dates in the UK on their tour last year - that must be nearly a million people who saw them - so if even a fraction of them come to the theatre then I'm sure it will be a success.

I know Gary Barlow isn't Jason Robert Brown but there are some smashing songs - there's a really funny one called 'Who wants a guy who wants a girl who wants a silent night?' which was my favourite. It does feel very much like a play with songs - even though they are lovely.

I am so glad Claire Machine is in the West End as she stole the show for me. She was really funny. The young people who played the kids were fantastic too and I am glad they are transferring to London. But the whole cast was great.

Phew - sorry I've gone on a bit. I know Burly Bear wasn't keen on the show - and I normally agree with him - but I thought it was a fab show.

Tickers will have sold ok so far as the GBArmy were queuing from silly o clock in the morning and buying tickets for multiple dates whilst tweeting him constant twitter updates.