Calendar Girls Tickets

The Noel Coward Theatre will be the home to Calendar Girls, the new stage adaptation of the hit 2003 movie. After having its premiere at the Chichester Festival Theatre before going on a UK tour across the country and then it will hit the West End next year. The show, starring Patricia Hodge and Lyndsay Bellingham arrive at the theatre in April.

Calendar Girls was a 2003 movie that starred Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Penelope Walters, Penelope Wilton and Celia Imrie. It told the real life story of the Women’s Institute members in Yorkshire and the decision they made to make a nude calendar for charity (in this case the money went to Leukaemia Research). The buzz surrounding the calendar is a lot higher than expected and the girls are suddenly thrown into the world of the media spotlight. Taking over the roles in this stage version is Hodge and Bellingham, and also Sian Phillips, Elaine C Smith, Gaynor Faye, Julia Hills, Brigit Forsyth, Joan Blackham, Abby Francis, Gary Lilburn, Gerald McDermot and Carl Prekopp.

Lyndsay Bellingham’s previous credits include the 1980s Oxo adverts that made her an iconic actor, but she has also appeared regularly on television shows such as All Creatures Great And Small, Second Thoughts, Doctor Who and recently she also appeared as a guest presenter on the hit ITV television show Loose Women. On stage she has appeared in London at the Trafalgar Studios in Vincent River. She will take over Helen Mirren’s Golden Globe winning role in the movie version as Chris Harper.

Patricia Hodge appears onstage as Annie Clarke, the character of which who is dealing with the death of her husband, which is the inspiration behind the calendar. Hodge has had a career that has spanned thirty years, during which time she has appeared in a number of productions including plays The Prime Of Jean Brodie, Dream Me A Winter at the Old Vic, Boeing Boeing and The Country Wife which appeared at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. She also has a number of film credits which include The Elephant Man with John Hurt and Harold Pinter’s Betrayal.

The play is written by Tim Firth who also wrote the movie version. It is directed by Hamish McColl with set design by Robert Jones, lighting by Malcoln Rippeth, music by Steve Parry and costume design by Emma Williams.

Calendar Girls will be at the Noel Coward Theatre from Saturday 11th April 2009 to Saturday 27th June 2009.