Gary Barlow's New Musical

Gary Barlow has revealed a new musical based on Calendar Girls that is set to premiere in November.

17:21 26 March 2015

Gary Barlow happily announced new musical that is based on Calendar Girls and which is set to premiere on November in Leeds. The production, entitled “The Girls” was announced on Sunday at Burnsall Village Hall, North Yorkshire, the same place where the singer met the original “girls.”

 

In 1998, Tricia Stewart suggested that Rylstone Women’s Institute raise funds by making a calendar featuring nude women so the hospital can afford to buy a sofa. The women immediately caught the attention of the media and their very British story became first a film starting Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. 

 

Barlow, who joked ““the only reason I wanted to be part of the show. I want to look at women with no clothes on” said that intimate setting is very important for the play. 

 

“We always said, if we can’t play this in a village hall we shouldn’t put it on a stage. If it has to rely on a big production and lights and a big band we shouldn’t be writing this. It has to exist with a piano and some people on stage. And we’ve done it.

 

“It’s about a little place where there’s mums, dads, brothers, sisters, kids ... That’s what the story’s about. We’ve got to make the theatre feel like this, as intimate as this.”