There are fans, and then there are superfans, and I’d assumed that you needed to be the latter to really appreciate Greatest Days (The Official Take That Musical). This is a jukebox musical—the urge to sing along to the hits is immediate—but the show actually cleverly subverts the usual conventions, resulting in something altogether more special.
One of the first tapes I bought was Take That & Party, and strangely enough, many of the shows I’ve watched recently have been steeped in nostalgia of some kind. This one really hit all those buttons as the age of the namesake protagonist—young, and modern-day Rachel (played by Olivia Hallett and Rachel Marwood respectively)—matched my personal timeline.
Robbie, closely followed by Mark, were my favourites, thanks for asking, but I was never really what you’d call a die-hard Take-Thatter. And, by 1996, I’d moved on to Britpop when they announced what proved to be a lengthy hiatus. So, my expectations about the show were reasonably muted—I’d most likely recognise the songs and enjoy myself, but I wasn’t fully prepared for what it actually is.
Greatest Days isn’t really about Take That at all; it’s instead an utterly relatable tale about growing up in the nineties, the madness of crushing hard on your idols and how music becomes the backdrop to your life without you even noticing. The group are just ‘the boys’—they never speak—instead they’re an omnipresent chorus; serenading the girls, busting some unmistakably TT moves (ahh, memories) and punctuating the highs and lows of friendship and life itself.
The boys’ vocals serve more as a tribute than a replica of the original—and they are delivered altogether impeccably. The standout performance comes from Jamie Corner, whose voice really took the spotlight for me during the ensemble pieces.
I enjoyed the familiarity of the music, without a predictable narrative—and I certainly didn’t expect tragedy to meet the feel-good quite so early on as the girls’ friendship is left in tatters by a significant loss. We then rejoin them 25 years later, having scattered in very different directions, much like the boys themselves did for a time before reuniting. I particularly resonated with modern-day Claire (Jamie-Rose Monk) whose teenage aspirations fell by the wayside in favour of crisps; “she’s in here somewhere”. I get you, kid; I get you.
Rachel Marwood and Olivia Hallett had a tough act to follow, having recently taken over from ex-Hearsay singer and Coronation Street actor Kym Marsh and her real-life daughter, Emilie Cunliffe, but if I hadn’t noted the cast change leaflet in the programme, this would have gone unnoticed because the production was seamless, and the entire cast’s joy was completely infectious.
I was, of course, on my feet along with everybody else by the end. If you’re looking for pure entertainment, find your inner ‘maximum Jeff’ and go and see it.