"Calendar Girls" features a team of Twin Cities theater heavy hitters in its regional premiere at Park Square Theatre. Too bad the play itself doesn't display the same breadth and depth.
This comedy, adapted by Tim Firth from his screenplay for the 2003 British film hit, is based on a feel-good true story. When one member of a Yorkshire women's club loses her husband to cancer, her pals band together to raise money for a local hospital as a memorial to him.
Their plan is to create a witty take on a girlie calendar, featuring the women in all their nude, middle-aged glory. Yet, while the scheme is a wild success, its ramifications place unforeseen stresses on the women's relationships.
Christina Baldwin and Charity Jones lead this merry band as the bereaved widow Annie and her best friend, Chris (roles played by Julie Walters and Helen Mirren in the original film). Jones brings a frenetic sense of joie de vivre, always ready to goad the more sedate Annie into mischief. Baldwin's unerring comic timing serves her well here, adding just a dash of salty humor to what might otherwise be a saccharine role.
After a sluggish, exposition-heavy start that introduces four other friends, two husbands and the martinet who leads the local chapter of the Women's Institute (played with bracing fortitude by Julia Cook), "Calendar Girls" hits its comic stride.
The high point is the scene in which the women manage to strip down and strike wildly suggestive poses while never revealing much of anything at all. Their sly humor is magnified by the painfully embarrassed presence of a young photographer (Ryan Colbert) determined to remain blind to what's taking place.
Director Mary M. Finnerty has surrounded Baldwin and Jones with a strong cast. Shanan Custer demonstrates that she's not afraid to wring the last chuckle out of a comic bit as the self-effacing and endlessly awkward Ruth, while Carolyn Pool revels in her lushly overblown role as the brash and sassy Celia. Linda Kelsey offers up an elegant and acid-tongued Jessie; Laurel Armstrong provides earthy humor as Cora. Other standouts include John Middleton as Annie's doomed husband and Bill McCallum as Chris' bluff and boozy spouse.
Firth's script holds up just fine through the clever fun-and-games of the first act, but begins to wobble in the second as he asks his characters to delve into deep thoughts. This production doesn't entirely shore up those weak spots and Finnerty allows the pace to lag here a bit.
That said, "Calendar Girls" offers the rare treat of a whole slew of female talent all onstage at the same time.
Lisa Brock is a Twin Cities theater critic.
