Reviewed by Jan Mellor
Well, as quite a Take That fan I was really intrigued as to whether all the hype of getting 5 ‘boys off the street’ to portray the biggest boy band in the world since the Beatles was going to be a hit or a miss.
On entering the theatre, the female prominent audience was excited and tense and the atmosphere was electrifying. The show started with us flying back to the 80’s “Thursday night 7 o’clock and Top of the Pops!”. People were already screaming at this point. The show opened with Rachel as a teenager watching her favourite band Take That on her bulky portable TV. She is introduced by herself years on which was a nice/sentimental touch. From within the furniture the ‘boys’ appear and open the hits of songs with “Pray”, people were already off their chairs and clapping wildly. Rachel meets with her best friends Claire, Heather, Zoe and Debbie at their secondary school and she announces that she has won tickets to see the ‘band’ and is taking her ‘girls’ with her. The ‘Boys’ appear out of the lockers to sing” It only takes a minute” and “Could it be magic”. Great! Once the girls have seen their favourite band and of course are ecstatic, they are taken home on a bus (great stage prop) to sing along to “Relight my fire” with the boys singing along as passengers who then change to warriors in great costumes and I was sucked in, this was amazing. The scene moved to a hill whereupon the girls all make a bond to come back in 25 years and sharing the band’s bands they are interlocked into the wonderful song “Million love songs”.
I don’t want to give anything away here so will skip to the second act where we see the young teenagers transform 25 years to adults, there are gasps and cheers as to how they appear and all fascinating and fun. In act 2 we see the friends reunited and again going to see their band. This time it is Prague and this time whilst there and being sung to by the boys “Greatest day of our lives” there are some amazing scenes that stunned me (again you’ll have to go yourself to see these). Through something happening (very funny) the women miss the concert ad end up on a bus (again) going back to the airport. On the bus the women sing with themselves as teenagers and I was crying into my programme at this point. The girls return home and back to the hill where they had made their pledge 25 years ago with the ‘boys’ surrounding them serenading “Patience”. The finale again not giving anything away was wonderful and I was sobbing again. The audience at this point were up on their feet singing away to their idol’s songs. A brilliant finale. Well done Tim Firth (writer) and Kim Gavin (director) you sure have a great hit on your hands!
I adored this show, the props were amazing (especially the plane that transformed into a disco ball and the statues in Prague- fantastic!). I presumed it would be a story about the 5 members of ‘Take That’ but it was much more than that, it was a journey through friendships, devotion, mistakes, the loss of dreams and the impact of losing and missing lifelong friends. The cast were fantastic, the choreography and costumes amazing and the girls/women for me stole the show. Go and see this show, even if Take That have never been your idols, it’s a sentimental journey through the last 25 years and will leave you, maybe not crying, but most definitely more aware of how songs and those that write and sing them can have an impact on us that lasts a lifetime.
“The Band” is phenomenal!
Rating: 5/5
Tickets cost from £23.40 to £53.40 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).
The Band is at the Liverpool Empire from 23 January to 3 February 2018, for more information or to book tickets visit www.atgtickets.com/liverpool or call the box office on 0844 8713017.
Liverpool Empire Theatre, Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1 1JE | 0844 8713017
