Empowering and joyful musical Calendar Girls coming to Congress

Calendar Girls - The Musical, by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, has announced an extension to the current tour to include the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, next summer.

The ladies will sashay into town for performances on August 6–10 and tickets went on sale this week.

The critically acclaimed and award-winning production played a six month London season at the Phoenix Theatre last year, and before that this musical comedy played sold-out seasons in Leeds and Manchester.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tim Firth said: “To be given a chance to revisit Calendar Girls - The Musical is a unique opportunity. Gary and I have been working away and, as the great Stephen Sondheim said, ‘Musical comedies aren’t written, they are rewritten’.”

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth grew up in the same village in the North of England and have been friends for 25 years.

With Take That, Gary has written and co-written 14 number one singles, has sold over 50 million records worldwide and is a six times Ivor Novello Award winner.

Tim has won the Olivier Award and UK Theatre Award for Best New Musical, and the British Comedy Awards Best Comedy Film for Calendar Girls.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The story of the Calendar Girls began in 1998 when John Baker, husband of Angela Baker, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

John sadly passed away after just a few months of treatment, but in the months following their loss, Angela and her friends set about creating the now infamous calendar as something for Angela to focus on and, also, to prove John wrong – he said they’d never do it.

Through the sale of calendars, the group aimed to raise enough to buy a new sofa for the hospital where John was treated and were amazed when the calendar attracted international press attention. So far, they’ve raised millions for Bloodwise (formerly Lymphoma & Lymphoma Research), the blood cancer charity they have been long associated with.

Their story of course inspired the successful movies starring likes of Helen Mirren and Julie Walters - the screenplay again written by Tim.

Tickets £19.50 - £48.50 at www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk or on 01323 412000.