"Greatest Days - The Take That Musical"

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Written by Tim Firth, the man who wrote "Calendar Girls". It’s 1993 and we meet five 16 year old girls for who ‘the band’ is everything. A group of girls, who were once inseparable, reunite after 25 years apart and try once more to fulfil their dream of meeting the boy band whose music became the soundtrack to their lives.

Rachel and her four school pals Debbie, Claire, Zoe, and Heather win tickets to see the band in concert at the Manchester Apollo, but on their return, tragedy strikes. 25 years later they reunite after Rachel wins another competition to see The Band reunite for a concert in Athens. The ladies' reunion also shows that a lot has happened, but the love they all shared for each other as giddy boyband devotees is still there, even if some things have been lost with the passing of time.

Jukebox musicals can often be an excuse to shoehorn as many songs from a certain band/singer in to a wispy script of a musical, but this does have a credible, heart-warming story with plenty of sentiment and has some lovely comedy moments, as well as some very cheesy sections.

I first saw the original production of "Greatest Days" back in 2018 when it was called "The Band", but due to the success of the recent film, "Greatest Days", the stage musical has been dusted off and renamed "Greatest Days". This production though. for me, has lost some of its' original shine in parts.

This musical is billed as The Official Take That Musical, while not directly referencing any member of Take That. Like a lot of jukebox musicals, the discovery is that the band's music is a lot harder to replicate, especially live, and while dancing.

Take That have excellent harmonies but I noticed tonight that some, not all, of the songs were slightly pitchy, and on a couple of occasions the lads didn't all come in at the same time. Not that most of this adoring crowd would have noticed. That said, the choreography for "The Band" was excellent from all five; something that can not be said of all members of Take That.

I was also not convinced that there was that much chemistry within "The Band" and often all members were spread out over the length of the stage. What I did think was good though was keeping the band as if they were a secondary string to the original storyline. Some of the lighting, especially in the second act, shown them in the shadows almost, pushing the connection and story of the reunited women right to the fore.

Jennifer Ellison, for anyone as old as I am, will remember her from her role as Emily Shadwick in "Brookside", plays Rachel. Jen has not changed a single bit from those "Brookside" days looks wise, but I would have liked to have seen her vocals used more, because she is a cracking singer in her own right. Young Rachel is played by Olivia Hallett.

Holly Ashton plays Zoe, with Hannah Brown playing Young Zoe. Zoe is the studious one who went to University, but as we find out from the older Zoe, things didn't quite go the way she had expected!

Karen Holmes plays Heather and Young Heather played by Kitty Harris. Kitty has a lovely feel for comedy which shows in her performance, something she has obviously inherited from her late father Keith.

Claire is played by Jamie-Rose Monk with Mari McGinlay playing Young Claire. This character is, for me, the most interesting character as there is a physical difference between young Claire and the Claire we see twenty five years down the line, but that difference really endears the audience to her, instead of laughing at her, we laugh with her. There is a real breath of fresh air with Jamie-Rose's performance.

Evangeline Jarvis Jones plays Debbie; wonderfully giddy, as are all of the young characters, bursting with adoration for their favourite boyband. You may also notice that there is no other actor playing an elder Debbie, well.............

Keith Henderson plays Jeff, Rachel's partner. Jeff is under the impression that Rachel winning the four tickets somehow meant that he was included in with the Athens trip. Think again Jeff! His cheesy scene when he meets Rachel from the plane on her return will put a gorgonzola size grin on your face.

Dave is played by Alan Stocks. This is a brilliant character because Dave is every authoritarian figure throughout the musical, and did you know Dave used to be a member of Spandau Ballet?

The members of the un-named boyband, ensuring that we do not automatically assume that this boyband is Take That are Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne - who will be recognised from winning "Dancing On Ice" in 2022, and of course for being the son of one of the best footballers ever - and Alexander O' Reilly.

As a dance group they are hot to trot, and vocal wise they do shine in many parts, just the odd note goes astray. The music is fun and they deliver with great energy, especially in numbers like "Shine" which also borrows from the promotional video for the song with top hats, canes and illuminated staircases. As eye candy they are very successful, as proven by the amount of screams and whoops, especially from the grown up women sat right at the back of me. It wasn't the loudness of the score that deafened me, it was them!

Directed by Tim Firth and Stacey Haynes, they succeeded in everything that they set out to do in this musical. A great soundtrack matched with a lovely storyline, in no way flimsy, and the power and energy, as well as the emotional values were evident and enjoyable.

Choreography is almost as big as the singing with boybands, and the choreography for this show is by Aaron Renfree. This is where the five male dancers who were "The Band" excelled because the athleticism and energy drove most of this show. All five lads are dancers first and vocalists second. Of course it doesn't harm the equation when they are all quite good looking chaps to boot!

Lucy Osborne's set and costume design were great, especially when we reached the elder group, and when I say "elder" I mean not the sixteen year old girls. The luggage was colour co ordinated with the costumes, which I loved because it shows the women's characters and personality. A bit like when JLS all wore different coloured and individual costumes, you knew who was who by their given colour scheme.

The costumes for "The Band" were also very stylish, from brilliant white T Shirts and slacks to smart jackets and suits. Very classy.

Rob Casey's Lighting Design created a spectacle of colour which not only flooded the stage but also seeped into the audience with its' Mirrorball imagery. The lighting design was responsible for creating as much excitement for me as the incessant catchiness of the Take That tunes. Take "Relight My Fire" for example which was like being at the best disco ever!

The Sound Design by Tony Gayle. Some may have moaned a bit about just how loud this production was. Not me; I'm not that old to be moaning about a bass that thumps you in the chest and leaves your ears ringing. Nice and crisp with a lovely sound production, although there were just a couple of times that I would have liked the vocals turned up a bit. That said when the whole company sang, the power was superb.

Musical Supervisor was John Donovan. There were some really nice arrangements of some of the slower Take That songs like "Rule The World", "A Million Love Songs" and "Patience", balanced out with some powerful and punchy upbeat numbers like "Could It Be Magic", "It Only takes A Minute" and "Relight My Fire". Being a big Take That fan from their very first picture disc album purchased, I love hearing their songs performed in this way.

This musical will relight your fire for boybands, and provide an exciting night that you'll never forget! Feel good theatre is back for good in 2023. If this tickles your fancy I just pray that you can get a ticket because tonight looked to be pretty full to me.

Great soundtrack, great dancing, I'd say that the women's vocals just had the edge on the male vocals, but this is such a good story and presented so well and with such energy and emotion, you really don't want to miss such a feel good piece of theatre, and it does really ramp up in the second act.

"Greatest Days" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 9 September.