Review: The Band – Take That’s debut musical

Take That are back with a brand new musical called ‘The Band’. The musical was written by Tim Firth and produced by David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers with some input from the boys themselves. Within two hours of tickets going on sale, the box office had already taken £2 million, making it the fastest selling UK theatre tour in history. And it all started with a little talent show on the BBC called ‘Let it Shine’.

Let it Shine started back in 2017 to find five young men to star in the musical The Band, but funnily enough this wasn’t a musical about the journey of Take That, but their fans. It was about a group of teenage girls obsessing over a boyband, which many girls can also relate to today. The girls would never reference the band as Take That, they would always say “the boys”. It was almost as if the girls thought Take That were part of their family, but we all knew what they meant.

The story was so good, it really had a meaning to it that will live on for a while. It is definitely one of the best stories for a musical out there. Hopefully Take That’s musical will last longer than Viva Forever about the Spice Girls, but with bookings up to 2019, I don’t see that being a problem. Of course the songs were incredible, nine number ones singles were included to make the musical even better and that is something Take That should be proud of.

Despite the technical difficulties at the beginning of the performance, delaying the show for 20 minutes, it was a very good show with a fantastic atmosphere from the crowd. The cast recovered really well and put on a phenomenal performance.

This musical will make you laugh, cry and sing at the top of your lungs. That is exactly what you want when you go to see a musical and it certainly delivered that. It knew when to bring in the comedy and I must applaud Katy Clayton, the young actress who played Heather, who put on a golden performance. I must also applaud Alison Fizjohn, who played the role of Claire as she played an incredible role that really touched a lot of people. It was really clever because it knew when to hold back from the comedy and made you think. When tragedy hit the girls it was heart-breaking to see them suffering the way they did. The song choice of A Million Love Songs fitted the moment perfectly. There wasn’t a dry eye in the centre.

The winners of Let it Shine, Five to Five, cannot go unmentioned. They were wonderful and really entertaining, you can see why they won the show. The one particular moment while they were singing The Flood and they recreated the Progress album cover was magical, and it will be something that will not be forgotten.
To be frank, all of the songs fitted well with the show, especially Rule The World. The whole cast took that song to their hearts and performed it so well that everyone gave a standing ovation. It certainly did bring back the true 90s nostalgia for a Take That fan. There was even an appearance from Ceefax to make you fall even more into a pool of nostalgia. If you are a fan of Take That then you do not want to miss this under any circumstances. I would 100% recommend it. Try and catch it if you can!