City News

“We’re going to need considerably bigger buns!”
CALENDAR GIRLS
Birmingham Hippodrome
Monday 28 June – Saturday 3 July

Casting announced for extra week in June

CALENDAR GIRLS has been the fastest selling tour ever and has triumphed in the West End.  Now following its February date it returns due to mend later this year to Birmingham Hippodrome starring ELIZABETH BENNETT, ANNE CHARLESTON, GEMMA CRAVEN, CHARLIE DIMMOCK, LETITIA DEAN, SU HOLDERNESS, HANNAH WATERMAN and DEAN GAFFNEY as the photographer.    CALENDAR GIRLS is at Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday 28 June – Saturday 3 July.

A group of ordinary women, members of a very ordinary Yorkshire WI, spark a global phenomenon by persuading one another to pose for a charity calendar with a difference! As interest snowballs, the CALENDAR GIRLS find themselves revealing more than they’d ever planned…

ELIZABETH BENNETT’s (new cast) long career includes stints working on both sides of the Atlantic though she’s probably best known in the UK as Enid Thompson in Home to Roost and for her regular appearances on Heartbeat. ANNE CHARLESTON (new cast) is best known as Madge in Neighbours. More recently, she’s been back on our screens as Lily Butterfield in Emmerdale. GEMMA CRAVEN (new cast) shot to fame as Cinderalla in the film The Slipper and the Rose in which she starred opposite Richard Chamberlain. Other credits include Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven as well as appearing in the long running Irish television series The Clinic.

CHARLIE DIMMOCK (new cast) makes her stage debut in Calendar Girls having become one of the nation’s favourite gardeners through her appearances on Ground Force, The Joy of Gardening and Charlie’s Garden. LETITIA DEAN, who returns for the June date, is best known as Sharon Watts in Eastenders a role she played from the opening episode for over ten years. Since leaving the show she has continued to make regular appearances back in Walford Square. In 2007 she was a much loved contestant on Strictly Come Dancing making it through to the quarter final. Another Eastender, DEAN GAFFNEY (new cast) stars as the photographer. Dean played Robbie Jackson in the soap for eleven years and, more recently, appeared on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!  

SU HOLDERNESS (new cast) is best known as Marlene Boyce in the BBC’s hugely popular Only Fools and Horses as well as the spin off series The Green Green Grass. On stage, Su’s credits include Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking and How the Other Half Loves. HANNAH WATERMAN, who returns for the June date, is probably best known as Ian Beale’s long suffering wife Laura in Eastenders. She joins the tour of Calendar Girls direct from the West End production. Tracy Briggs, Mikyla Dodd, Su Douglas, John Labanowski and Colin Tarrant complete the cast.

TIM FIRTH has adapted the screenplay of his smash hit Miramax film for the stage. The film was released in 2003 and was an instant hit at the box office, becoming the number one grossing film in the UK on its release.  Tim’s other credits include the films Blackball and Kinky Boots and the award winning Preston Front for the BBC. His theatre credits include the plays Neville’s Island, The Safari Party, The Flint Street Nativity and the Olivier Award winning musical Our House.    

CALENDAR GIRLS is directed by Olivier Award winner HAMISH McCOLL. Hamish is probably best known as half of the double act THE RIGHT SIZE, who from 1988 created a unique style of comic theatre culminating in the smash hit The Play What I Wrote which won the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. Other credits include director for French and Saunders’ farewell tour Still Alive and the screenplay for Mr Bean’s Holiday.  Design is by ROB JONES whose recent credits include Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium and Rock’n’Roll in London and New York. Costumes are by EMMA WILLAMS, lighting design is by MALCOLM RIPPETH, music by STEVE PARRY, sound design by JOHN LEONARD with casting by SARAH BIRD.

CALENDAR GIRLS runs at Birmingham Hippodrome from 28 June – 3 July.   Perf times.  Eves 7.30pm; Wed mat 2pm; Sat mat 2.30pm.   tickets £15-£32.50.   Book online at www.birminghamhippodrome.com or telephone 0844 338 5000.   (Calls vary from 5pm per min, transaction charge 6% phone and counter, 3% online.