Greatest Days Take That Musical Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 29th August 2023 Review
Greatest Days The Official Take That Musical is at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh this week (Mon 28 August - Sat 2 September) and although it will no doubt appeal to many of the fans for whom Take That were simply THE BAND of their teenage years, it does need stated early in this review that this is a re-branded product and, to be fair, its publicity makes no attempt to hide this fact.
This stage musical was originally released as “The Band” and was a huge success when it was performed from 2017-2018. With a new film out this year based on this show and the band, but titled “Greatest Days”, the name change and the re-launch of the show makes obvious sense.
I never saw “The Band” stage show, so this review is based solely on this production and it has its ups and downs, high points and low points, but for the most part it seems at times unfocused as to exactly what story it is telling. Is this the story of Take That, the band, the music of the band, or the story of teenage fans who lose touch with one another and meet 25 years later in their life? Perhaps it is a little of all three. Any show like this that has two different casts for the same characters at different stages of their lives is always going to have that audience problem of trying to relate one to the other, especially when schoolgirls are constantly portrayed on stage by people who are clearly no longer schoolgirls.
Leading this cast is Jennifer Ellison as Rachel with Holly Ashton (Zoe), Rachel Marwood (Heather), and Jamie-Rose Monk (Claire) in the role of the now re-united adult friends. Why there is no Debbie (Mary Moore in the teen role), I leave you to find out by going to the show. Here we have for me one of the biggest problems of this show. With a fairly short running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes (including interval), it really needed that extra 20 minutes or so to expand the dialogue and take us deeper into the relationships, old and new, of our principal cast.
Take That were simply the biggest boy band of their time and the first half of this show gives us five teenage girls obsessed with the band and each member of it and I am sure that many people in the audience tonight could relate to that image. Perhaps for me, not being a Take That fan at the time and not having that visual connection with the original band, I found the stage version of the band to often be an unnecessary intrusion into the story line and I would have been happier if this script had just let the music speak for itself as Gary Barlow has over the years proven himself to be a fine songwriter.
This really is a show in two halves, the teenage girls, and the adults meeting up again after so many years apart and Act II has much more going for it as a dramatic work of theatre, but time is always against us to really explore the dynamics of this group of friends or even find out why the adult Rachel even entered the competition that eventually re-unites them when there was obviously so much pain and loss from earlier years still there in her life. The later moments of this show do, however, give tantalising glimpses of just how good a work of dramatic theatre this show could be at its full potential with the music and words of Take That music as an interweaving story between all of our teen and adult characters.
Time moves forward in one direction only for a reason; to stop us ever going back. Sometimes the Greatest Days of your life are meant to be wherever the past is.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This stage musical was originally released as “The Band” and was a huge success when it was performed from 2017-2018. With a new film out this year based on this show and the band, but titled “Greatest Days”, the name change and the re-launch of the show makes obvious sense.
I never saw “The Band” stage show, so this review is based solely on this production and it has its ups and downs, high points and low points, but for the most part it seems at times unfocused as to exactly what story it is telling. Is this the story of Take That, the band, the music of the band, or the story of teenage fans who lose touch with one another and meet 25 years later in their life? Perhaps it is a little of all three. Any show like this that has two different casts for the same characters at different stages of their lives is always going to have that audience problem of trying to relate one to the other, especially when schoolgirls are constantly portrayed on stage by people who are clearly no longer schoolgirls.
Leading this cast is Jennifer Ellison as Rachel with Holly Ashton (Zoe), Rachel Marwood (Heather), and Jamie-Rose Monk (Claire) in the role of the now re-united adult friends. Why there is no Debbie (Mary Moore in the teen role), I leave you to find out by going to the show. Here we have for me one of the biggest problems of this show. With a fairly short running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes (including interval), it really needed that extra 20 minutes or so to expand the dialogue and take us deeper into the relationships, old and new, of our principal cast.
Take That were simply the biggest boy band of their time and the first half of this show gives us five teenage girls obsessed with the band and each member of it and I am sure that many people in the audience tonight could relate to that image. Perhaps for me, not being a Take That fan at the time and not having that visual connection with the original band, I found the stage version of the band to often be an unnecessary intrusion into the story line and I would have been happier if this script had just let the music speak for itself as Gary Barlow has over the years proven himself to be a fine songwriter.
This really is a show in two halves, the teenage girls, and the adults meeting up again after so many years apart and Act II has much more going for it as a dramatic work of theatre, but time is always against us to really explore the dynamics of this group of friends or even find out why the adult Rachel even entered the competition that eventually re-unites them when there was obviously so much pain and loss from earlier years still there in her life. The later moments of this show do, however, give tantalising glimpses of just how good a work of dramatic theatre this show could be at its full potential with the music and words of Take That music as an interweaving story between all of our teen and adult characters.
Time moves forward in one direction only for a reason; to stop us ever going back. Sometimes the Greatest Days of your life are meant to be wherever the past is.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com