Bill Kenwright Ltd. will present a new U.K. tour of Calendar Girls the Musical, which will launch August 30-September 16 at the Theatre Royal Windsor.
Directed by Jonathan O'Boyle, the production will subsequently play Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield (September 19-23), Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham (September 23-30), Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham (October 3-7), Liverpool Empire (October 10-14), Milton Keynes Theatre (October 17-21), New Theatre, Peterborough (October 24-28), Wimbledon New Theatre (October 31-November 4), Leeds Grand Theatre (November 7-11), Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (November 14-18), Darlington Hippodrome (November 21-25), and Hull New Theatre (November 28-December 2).
Tanya Franks (Eastenders), Maureen Nolan (The Nolans), Lyn Paul (The New Seekers), Amy Robbins (Coronation Street), Paula Tappenden (Blood Brothers), Marti Webb (Evita, Tell Me on Sunday), and Honeysuckle Weeks (Foyles War) will star as the group of women in a small Yorkshire town who set about creating a nude calendar to raise money for charity. Additional casting will be announced.
Based on the play of the same name by Tim Firth and the motion picture penned by Firth and Juliette Towhidi, Calendar Girls the Musical is written by Gary Barlow and Firth.
Co-writer Firth says, "Pre-pandemic I had been preparing the musical for a foreign production which was, of course, then postponed. When the skies cleared and a new production in the U.K. was proposed, I looked back and thought, ‘This is the version we ought to stage.’ The story and songs, a little like the real world, had been thrown in the air and come back slightly different. What we had in our hands lay somewhere between the original play and the original musical, and it seemed right for a time when sunlight, optimism, and humor seemed more necessary than ever. Like the calendar itself, it seemed that something dark had created something unexpectedly bright."
The touring production will also have designs by Gary McCann, musical direction by Jordan Alexander and lighting by Nick Richings.
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