Maltby Musical Theatre Group prepares for Calendar Girls stage show with a twist

THE big date has almost arrived, as Calendar Girls comes to the Civic next weekend.

And the director of the amateur theatre production admitted his cast are a little nervous about revealing all on stage.

Richard Wilshaw, who is overseeing the show for Maltby Musical Theatre Group, said: “I think everybody is really excited.

“Clearly the storyline is very powerful so everyone feels a responsibility to tell the story properly.

“I think the girls will be a little nervous, but excited as well, as we’ve put a lot of preparation into it.”

If the Calendar Girls story has escaped you so far, it’s the real life-inspired tale of Women’s Institute members who star in a cheeky nude charity calendar to raise funds for Blood Cancer UK after one of their husbands dies from the disease.

Calendar Girls started life as a play before becoming a 2003 film — starring Julie Walters and Helen Mirren — and finally a musical featuring original songs by Take That star Gary Barlow.

Richard said there was a family theme to the musical, with a touch more comedy than the film, making for an uplifting show.

The ladies followed in the risqué footsteps of their characters by baring all in front of the camera for a calendar photoshoot of their own.

Now MMTG are applying the finishing touches to the stage show, with curtain up next Tuesday.

One of the film’s most famous sequences is the cheeky photoshoot where  the calendar girls’ modesty is maintained by WI institutions like cake, jam and produce displays.

It will be faithfully reproduced by MMTG, and Richard said a lot of time had gone into getting this section just right, with a strong emphasis on building the actors’ confidence.

“We’ve been working on this since last October,” he added.

“A lot of the members on stage I’ve known for more than 20 years so we are all friends — it’s not like we’ve hired in actors from outside — and there’s a lot of trust between us.”

The theatre company contributed some of the proceeds from their own calendar ahead of curtain-up to Blood Cancer UK, the charity supported by the original calendar girls from Rylston WI.

And they are urging anyone coming along to the show next week — it runs from Tuesday to Saturday, with a matinee on the last day — to remember cash for a charity collection.

“The girls will all be coming out in their costumes to make collections for cancer research and we want to ask the public to bring their change,” he said.

“A lot of people have gone cashless but we will be donating proceeds from the collection and we’d like to raise as much as possible.”

Tickets for Calendar Girls are available to buy from the Rotherham Civic website at www.rotherhamtheatres.co.uk or on 01709 823621.