Tim Firth has completed the writing triple. A successful film, a popular play and now a musical based on the inspiring story of Yorkshire’s Rylstone & District Women’s Institute.As a majority of the audience will know, they follow the real life events of a group of women ‘of a certain age’, who went from weekly chats about broccoli and tea towels at their local WI to appearing in a ‘nude’ calendar with only their knitting needles, current buns and gardening gloves to protect their modesty. This was all based on the desire to raise money for a new sofa in the relatives’ room of the hospital where one of their core lost her husband to cancer. A journey that ended up catching the attention of the world and was so successful that to date they have raised in excess of £4.5m for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research (Bloodwise).
By the interval, The Girls feels at first like a charming and sweet new musical aimed at the group bookings market. Nothing revolutionary, just safe and sound. Gary Barlow’s music wafts through the story but rarely seems to take hold. There is however lots of laughter to be had with Tim Firth mining the dry wit of Yorkshire for all its worth. Michelle Dotrice, from Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em, revels in this and gives a comedy masterclass as Jessie.
And then the Second Act gets going and everything just suddenly falls into place.
The piece widens away from the idea of commemoration as we discover more deeply the individual tales of all the struggles behind the women involved, be it single parenthood, double parenthood, adultery, acceptance or just trying to hold back time. By the end, their bravery and determination to ‘Dare’ can make even a sour and cynical critic’s eye moisten.
The central cast is uniformly strong including Joanna Riding in fine voice as Annie, Claire Moore a powerhouse of motherly bravery and Debbie Chazen, breaking your heart in ‘My Russian Friend And I’.
With all the arguments and upheaval currently in the world, The Girls is a heart warming tonic. A display of what wonders, despite adversities and expectations, can be achieved when we stand together and simply try to help.
It's a time for star led Shakespeare. Next week I'm looking forward to seeing Andrew Scott as Hamlet at the Almeida (despite the news that it's running at 4 hours 10 minutes!) but nipping in before him is TV and stage star Tamsin Grieg who's starring as Malvolia in TWELFTH NIGHT at the National Theatre.