Gary Barlow's The Girls Musical opens in London and cast is announced

Gary Barlow and Tim Firth's musical to open at the Phoenix Theatre.

Official dates have been set for the West End premiere of Gary Barlow and Tim Firth's musical The Girls which begins performances at the Phoenix Theatre on 28 January 2017, with an official opening on 21 February 2017.

The musical is based on the 2003 film Calendar Girls which starred Julie Walters and Helen Mirren and features a score by Take That front man Gary Barlow and book by Tim Firth. The film has previously been seen in London as a play, also adapted by Firth, which has enjoyed numerous UK tours.

The Girls premiered in November 2015 at the Leeds Grand Theatre, and also played the Lowry in Salford Quays in January 2016.

Based on a true story, The Girls follows a group of Yorkshire ladies who came together to do something extraordinary. Following the death of one of their husbands from leukaemia, they came together to convince the WI to appear in a nude calendar in order to raise money to buy a settee for the visitor's room of their local hospital. The saucy calendar went on to cause an international sensation raising over three million pounds. Firth and Barlow's musical follows the screenplay from the film and explores life in their Yorkshire village as well as the effect on their husbands, sons and daughters and ultimately how they became a worldwide phenomenon.

Full casting for the West End production includes: Debbie Chazen (Ruth), Sophie-Louise Dann (Celia), Michele Dotrice (Jessie), Claire Machin (Cora), Claire Moore (Chris), Joanna Riding (Annie), Joe Caffrey (Rod), Jeremy Clyde (Denis), John Davitt (Doctor), Soo Drouet (Brenda), James Gaddas (John), Jenny Gayner (Miss Wilson (coffee)), Steve Giles (Lawrence), Maxwell Hutcheon (Colin), Shirley Jameson (Miss Wilson (tea)), Marian McLoughlin (Marie), Judith Street (Lady Cravenshire) and Jane Lambert, Rebecca Lewis, Victoria Blackburn, Frazer Hadfield, Josh Benson (Tommo), Ben Hunter (Danny) and Chloe May Jackson (Jenny).

The Girls will be directed by Tim Firth, with musical staging by Lizzi Gee, comedy staging by Jos Houben, design by Robert Jones, lighting design by Tim Lutkin, sound design by Terry Jardine and Nick Lidster, musical direction and orchestrations by Richard Beadle.

The Girls tickets are now on sale. Bloodwise, the UK's specialist blood cancer charity, will receive monies from this production.