Rachel Lumberg and Martin Miller in The Band. Picture: Matt Crockett
The Band continues at the Opera House, Manchester until 30 September, then tours until 14 July 2018.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
There were raised eyebrows and mutterings of mild outrage back in March when it emerged that the winners of Let It Shine, BBC1’s shiny-floored search for new stars to play the titular band in this Take That musical, were not going to be the leads but have non-speaking supporting roles in a story focusing on the friendship between five pop-obsessed teenage girls, played out to a soundtrack of the pre-eminent 90s boyband’s greatest hits.
Viewers took to social media to say they felt ‘conned’, that the talent show had been one big publicity stunt and that the band it created, Five to Five, would end up as little more than singing wallpaper.
And while it’s true that AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T Johns, Yazdan Qafouri and Sario Solomon are often peripheral to the action, and not only appear as members of the girls’ favourite band but also as air stewards, cleaners and – in the case of one memorable section where they play Greek statues – actual parts of the scenery, they are very much integral to the story.
Their voices are strong – particular Johns, who takes the lead as the group’s nominal Gary – and Kim Gavin and Jack Ryder’s direction (together with Gavin’s choreography) have them wittily interacting with the core cast, popping out of bedside cabinets, lockers and onto buses, and gently cajoling and commenting upon the characters’ actions via cleverly interwoven lyrics as the story unfolds.
The decision to centre on the story of a group of Take That fans, rather than the band itself is one of many masterstrokes in a book from Tim ‘Calendar Girls’ Firth that combines great big belly laughs with genuinely poignant moments.
It’s deftly and sparingly plotted, as Rach (played winningly in adulthood by Rachel Lumberg and as a fizzingly excitable Tracy Turnblad-like teen by Faye Christall) tells the story of the fateful night in 1993 that her and her friends – sporty Claire (Sarah Kate Howarth), slutty Heather (Katy Clayton), bookish Zoe (Lauren Jacobs) and ringleader Debbie (an effervescent Rachelle Diedericks) – bunked off school to watch their beloved ‘boys’ (cleverly never actually referred to as Take That or Gary, Howard, Jason, Mark or Robbie) live in concert.
These early scenes are among the production’s best, with the 16-year-olds slightly more fleshed out than their grown-up counterparts, who reunite for the first time in 25 years to see their idols’ reunion concert in Prague.
There is something inescapably Mamma Mia!-ish about the dynamic between the older women and ‘girls on the town’ turn the production then takes.
But while Take That’s songs don’t have quite the same breadth, depth and variety as ABBA’s considerably better stocked songbook – although the rousing one-two punch of ‘Patience’ and ‘Rule the World’ in the show’s closing stages comes close – this is by far the superior show.
It feels warmly familiar but takes you to some surprising places, not least the emotional heft with which the character’s losses and longings are convincingly played out.
The moment that Rachel tells her perennial finance Jeff (an expertly tragi-comic turn from Martin Miller) why she’s put off their wedding for so long is achingly sad, prompting some well-earned tears to mingle with the interval Prosecco before the next roof-raising singalong comes along.
Writer Firth, producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers and their creative team have not only precision-engineered a show that appeals to its target audience of women of a certain age and their teenage daughters, but have also taken considerable care to make sure that their attendant husbands, sons and boyfriends are thoroughly entertained too.
In fact, even the most fervent Take That rejecter would be hard-pushed not to be won over by a show of such heart, confidence and panache. That, ultimately, will ensure it has the magic to become the mega-hit it deserves to be.
Chris Bartlett
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