Rachelle Diedericks, Sarah Kate Howarth, Faye Christall, Lauren Jacobs and Katy Clayton in The Band. Picture: Matt Crockett
The Band continues at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, until 12 January 2019, then tours.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Band does the very unexpected. At face value, it is suspected that this musical’s sole focus is everything Take That, yet the heartwarming story of five girls and the importance of the band to them as a friendship unit immediately takes centre stage.
In fact, the title is a play on words, dually referencing the boy band, and the bands worn by the girls, purchased after their first concert. Acting as unconventional friendship bracelets, the bands become a motif for a friendship that is wrecked following a tragedy, but ultimately restored by the consensus that this is the ultimate boy band, even 25 years on.
The production opens with 16-year-old Rachel (Faye Christall) amidst the paraphernalia of 90s pop culture, with Top of the Pops inevitably emblazoned across an obnoxiously clunky television set.
Establishing themselves as the soundtrack to the girls’ lives, the boy band (consisting of AJ Bentley, Curtis T. Johns, Nick Carsberg, Sario Solomon, and Yazdan Qafouri) effortlessly switch from renown 90s pop band to an ensemble of flight attendants, a cleaning crew and at one point a posse of statues, suddenly animated as they leap into song and dance from a fountain in Prague, so as to accompany the girls’ every move.
The Band successfully portrays the forever-quality shared between boy bands and their fans and it is perhaps this that truly charms the audience. Sarah Kate Howarth (who plays a young Claire) has commented on writer Tim Firth’s ability to “capture the way that real people communicate” and the accuracy of his portrayal of rose-tinted teen infatuation makes it difficult not to liken yourself to younger versions of these starstruck girls.
Combined with stellar performances from Katy Clayton, Lauren Jacobs, Rachelle Diedericks, Christall and Howarth, the production encapsulates the true essence of adolescence while maintaining the wow factor of a polished West End production.
Co-directors Kim Gavin and Jacky Ryder transform The Band into a spectacle that surprisingly avoids the clichéd, with punchy dance sequences that offer short bursts of energy in an already entertaining production.
Transformative set visuals (all projected onto a supersized pin board so as to emphasise the importance of memories) beautify scenes of retrospect, roses blossoming in the background as a now older Rachel (played by Rachel Lumberg) reflects on the first of the band’s concerts she saw with the girls, moments after winning tickets to see them 25 years later.
As someone who was initially sceptical of a musical that couldn’t possibly juggle the enormous marketability of Take That without falling victim to a succession of clichés, a standing ovation confirmed that the production exudes brilliance.
The script, choreography and visuals work harmoniously to create a spectacle that is both relevant to an audience who grew up during the Take That era, and also to everyone else in between.
The musical offers the ultimate escapism into the whirlwind infatuation of boy bands, an experience that is still applicable to young people today. For this reason, The Band is a must-see.
Jessica Lochan-Jenkinson
Tickets for The Band are available HERE.
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