Reviewed by Rosemary Knight
Last night (26 September 2017), we travelled to the Opera House in central Manchester to watch The Band, a new musical written by Tim Firth, featuring the music of Take That. As we approached the theatre, we suddenly heard loud shrieks and discovered that Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald, also known as Take That, were on the red carpet meeting their fans, much to the delight of us all.
The show revolves around five sixteen-year-old girls, Rachel, Debbie, Heather, Claire and Zoe who are obsessed with The Band and sneak out without their parents’ permission to watch their heroes perform in Manchester. Tragically, one of the girls dies and the remaining four girls lose contact with each. Fast forward twenty-five years and the now grown up Rachel wins a competition to see the newly reformed Band live in Prague, so they all meet up again. There are many comic moments, especially the scenes set in the Prague police station.
The show is set to a soundtrack of Take That music, performed by Five to Five, AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T. Johns, Yazdan Qafouri and Sario Solomon, who were so good they could have been the genuine article. They sang and danced with energy and enthusiasm to songs including Could it be Magic, Rule the World, Shine, The Flood and many more.
The real stars of the show are the women themselves. Rachel Lumberg shines as Rachel and Alison Fitzjohn as Claire, Emily Joyce as Heather and Jayne McKenna as Zoe are all equally superb. This is a story about friendship and trying to fulfil your dreams. It is warm, funny and searingly honest and the audience lapped it up. The standing ovation by the entire audience was well deserved, and when Take That and Lulu joined the cast on stage to perform Relight my fire and Never Forget, the crowd were overjoyed.
The Band is deservedly breaking box office records and it was announced last night that it will now run for an extra year, so many more people will get the chance to see this fabulous show. We left the theatre with a real warm glow, having enjoyed this performance so much.
This was an incredible evening, one of the best I can remember for a long time.
Rating: 5/5
The Band is currently on tour around the UK, for more information and tour dates visit www.thebandmusical.com.
For other shows at the Opera House in Manchester visit www.atgtickets.com/operahouse.
Opera House, 3 Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3HP | 0844 871 3018
