Greatest Days – Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Book: Tim Firth

Music: Take That

Director: Tim Firth and Stacey Haynes

This is the official Take That musical featuring more than fifteen of the successful band’s songs; originally titled, The Band, this musical has been renamed to match the film based on the musical production and celebrates the 30th anniversary of Take That’s first-ever UK number one single, Pray.

The production is set to a soundtrack of Take That tunes which are delivered at key points in the story by five boyband members, Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne and Alexander O’Reilly, representing Take That but referred to as ‘The Band’ throughout the show.

The story focuses on Rachel, played in two timelines by Emilie Cunliffe and Kym Marsh and her group of friends who are great mates in the 1990’s due to a shared love of a popular boyband but they go their separate ways when misfortune strikes their relationship; they are able to reunite due to Rachel winning tickets in a competition to see the boyband in Athens over twenty years later.

Unfortunately, Greatest Days isn’t the best musical production for a greatest night’s entertainment. With a weak storyline, the first half of the production dragged and lacked spark. The script tries its best to be amusing but a lot of the jokes are hackneyed and miss the mark; it also fails at tugging the heartstrings as it lacks warmth due to being too over-sentimental at times and cheesy at others; it can also be quite maudlin veering on depressive. A scene where the women are reflecting on their lives, which also features their younger selves, is meant to be thought-provoking and touching but regrettably, it fails due to clichéd, overemotional reminiscences and tired gags.

The show touches on subjects that were at one time hard-to-talk-about, such as sexuality, promiscuous behaviour, the death of a loved one, marital disputes and everyday issues women of all backgrounds face but these segments showed their age revealing that the script definitely needs updating to reflect today’s society and how such problems have now become commonplace.

Mary Moore as young Debbie, probably has the best vocals in the whole cast but unfortunately, her role is cut short early in the production and she has only fleeting appearances later on. The boyband members sing adequately from Take That’s extensive back catalogue and perform their dance sequences well; they are energetic, acrobatic with muscular bodies but at times they arrive on stage during sequences singing a track which doesn’t fit the dialogue or setting.

Mamma Mia this isn’t but probably fans of Take That will enjoy this production and appreciate the music probably singing along to many of Take That’s hits which feature in the show, such as ‘Back For Good’, ‘Greatest Day’, ‘Never Forget’, ‘Shine’, ‘Pray’, ‘Relight My Fire’ and ‘Rule The World’; there were also some of the more obscure songs featured which only fans may recognise. It is a chance for a nostalgic trip back in time to the 1990’s for those who want to remember them.

The show runs until August 19, 2023