NOT only the name has changed since The Girls premiered to five-star notices at the Leeds Grand in December 2015.

Composer Gary Barlow and writer and lyricist Tim Firth have revisited their musical; Matt Ryan has taken over as director from Roger Haines and Firth, and the producers have favoured a celebrity cast of 'Girls' for the nine-month tour that lies ahead: Fern Britton, Ruth Madoc, Denise Welch, Chewin' The Fat's Karen Dunbar, musical theatre stars Rebecca Storm and Anna-Jane Casey and familiar television regular Sara Crowe.

You can see the commercial logic, but it instantly robs Ryan's production of the down-to-earth, everyday nature of the Yorkshire Dales' original Calendar Girls, who were in attendance at Wednesday's dress rehearsal, along with Barlow and Firth.

Likewise, Robert Jones has tailored his set design for the demands of touring. Out goes a more theatrical Yorkshire landscape made from towering green-fronted furniture that turned into doors and prop cupboards; in comes, well, the Yorkshire landscape and a regularly opened gate, to less impact alas.

What still works best is Firth's witty and wise script with its balance of pathos, sadness, northern humour and bloody-minded defiance, while Barlow's storytelling songs have momentum and verve more than melody.

Storm's Chris is in great voice, Crowe's Cora is comedy gold, but Casey's Annie is no match for Joanna Riding in 2015, and the big strip for the WI calendar is hit and miss, needing to be bolder, bigger, like the buns.

Calendar Girls, The Musical, Leeds Grand Theatre, until September 2, then on tour. Box office: 0844 848 2700 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com.