A group of extraordinary women, members of a very ordinary Yorkshire WI, persuade one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference. Overcoming their initial reserve and riding the wrath of the outraged WI, the friends drop their dressing gowns, their modesty spared only by artfully placed cakes, knitting and flower arrangements. But as media interest snowballs, the Calendar Girls find themselves exposed in ways they’d never expected.
With a very English heart, Calendar Girls by Tim Firth and based on the Miramax film, is quirky, poignant and hilarious.
The summer fete committee of a typical British village meets on a cold January night to discuss arrangements for that year’s fete. As committee protocol gives way to bickering and gossip, along with the unending problem of where to put the tea tent, we begin to see the personalities of those present. Much innuendo abounds around the vicar whose faith is in question and who enjoys more than his share of the communion wine and has a passion for someone other than his wife.
6 months later, we are in the throngs of a summer fete with prizes going missing, windows not opening and revelations that there was more than one affair going on, distress at missing floats, gunshots and someone getting to the end of their tether. These events are related with humour and pathos, with the upbeat ending affirming the enduring value of village life.
The convent in the small town of Hoboken has had a calamitous event. 52 sisters have been fatally struck down by a bowl of tainted vichyssoise but thanks to Reverend Mother miscalculating and spending the last of the finances on a plasma TV only 48 sisters have been buried,! So come and meet the Brothers and Sisters as they put on a variety show to raise funds to bury the last four sisters before the Department of Health come to inspect their freezer!!!
Described as a “hail of fun and frolic” by the New York Times, the original New York Production won four Outer Critics Circle Awards including Best Off Broadway Musical. With book, music and lyrics written by Dan Goggins, it has now been updated to the Mega Musical version, making this mixture of review/comedy/musical bigger and wackier than it was before!
“Guaranteed to lift your spirits”
Lord Arthur Savile, although not overburdened with brains, is the perfect, well-bred gentleman engaged to the lovely Sybil Merton and is looking forward to a life of eternal happiness.
But his wedding plans are shattered after is told he is destined to commit murder after his future mother-in-law, Lady Julia Merton, arranges for unsettling cheiromantist, Mr Podgers to read his palm. To prevent his future wife from having to bow her head in shame for him, Arthur decides to commit this bloody deed before he marries.
Lord Arthur enlists the help of wily butler Baines and eccentric Prussian Anarchist Herr Winklekopf and together they hatch a series of woefully unsuccessful madcap plots to kill off a family member.
