I went to Leeds Grand Theatre to see The
Girls with my friend and colleague Nicola Pelling on Saturday 28th
November 2015. I apologise for my tardiness with this blog; it has been such a
busy time lately what with work and Christmas shopping with Mother I have not
got round to writing anything – also it has taken this long for the Grand to
send me the programme. I do believe that this is the first time the Grand has
been mentioned in my blog. I love the Grand situated in the heart of Leeds; so
would love to move to Leeds. We arrived early on and went to a lovely hotel (that
couldn’t spell the word night properly) in Beeston. We later realised that
Beeston is not the nicest area of Leeds and looking back can see why. Two funny
events occurred in the hotel, firstly asking for some glasses to have some
prosecco in, when given two small plastic cups while looking at a whole tray of
glass glasses was annoying. Secondly when walking out of the hotel to get the
taxi to Leeds central a man from the neighbouring room should “OI! Loud
bastards” I became slightly anxious about my future. After the show we also met
a lovely lady called Sylvia and we thank you for helping us get a taxi back to
our hotel. Back to the Grand, it’s another local theatre that is getting the
best of the UK tours stopping off in Leeds to please the Yorkshire folk. It’s a
nice theatre with a beautiful auditorium.
The Girls is a musical with music and lyrics
from Gary Barlow. It is based on the true story of the calendar girls who
raised money by putting on a very unconventional women’s institute (WI)
calendar; them in the nude. The money was raised to buy a sofa for the local
hospital visitors’ room where one of the lady’s husbands had died. Tim Frith
was part of the creative team with Barlow helping to write the musical. Frith
also wrote the film and play of the calendar girls. I went with no preconceptions
about this musical, I knew the story of the calendar girls but I did not have
any idea regarding songs, staging, story line changes and acting. I was blown
over how professional, gorgeous and emotional the production would be. I was
laughing throughout and also nearly had a tear which for me to cry at a musical
is something (I am usually too excited and psyched about the songs and dancing
I am unable to cry). The staging was immense. It was built out of furniture all
painted green; wardrobes, chest of drawers, doors, bedside tables, everything.
They represented the Yorkshire hills and enabled exit and entrance routes for
actors. Due to the set design it enabled a full use of levels by those on
stage. With walking through the hills and seeing the whole stage in use was
magical.
After such a long wait I cannot believe the
programme does not have a song list and I cannot remember all the songs. I did
love the songs ‘Dare’ and ‘Yorkshire’ which are pertinent to the storyline but
also have some beautiful lyrics and some wonderful music to accompany them.
Barlow had sort of cheated on a couple of the songs using the music from his
recent album changing the words for the show; they were however still amazing.
I was pleasantly surprised by the score and am upset that I cannot buy the
soundtrack yet; I do hope this becomes available. You can see Barlow singing
these songs on YouTube. Ruth, the main character, is portrayed by Debbie Chazen
and her voice is awesome. She also has some emotional turmoil throughout the
show and one of her songs is very heart wrenching. Olivier award winner Sara
Kestelman plays Jessie who is the ‘more experienced’ one of the characters and
71-year old Kestelman plays a blinder in this. Claire Moore (Miss Saigon and
Les Misėrables) plays Chris who is a very funny character and is having some
trouble with her teenage son. I felt the audience were able to relate to the
characters and women on stage; myself included thinking of the important women
in my life. This, I felt, was what made the musical such a success as ordinary
folk in the audience can see their mother, daughter, grandmother, sister,
friend, whoever on the stage going through their daily trials and tribulations.
Cora (a character in the show not nanny Cora) was played by Claire Machin.
Claire is comedy gold in The Girls and makes you laugh and cry throughout the
show. Her song on the Christmas van is hilarious. I thought I recognised Cora
from my seat in the auditorium but shrugged it off as her voice was not what I
remembered (this later showed Machin’s phenomenal ability for voice control and
accents). I even met Machin on the way out who kindly signed a flyer for me (so
gutted I didn’t ask for a picture). I originally saw Machin in Memphis at the
Shaftsbury Theatre who was amazing then. It was so nice to meet her but such a
shame I did not realise until after the show. It really is a fabulous show to
see and has finished its run at The Grand in Leeds, moving to the Lowry in Manchester
in early January running just short of two weeks. I have not heard anything
about the musical moving to The West End but I think it would make the perfect
addition to the calibre of theatre there.
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