Review of Greatest Days at Norwich Theatre Royal: Quirky jukebox musical of Take That songs is lovely, nostalgic show
Greatest Days – Theatre Royal, Norwich
Now who doesn’t love a bit of Take That? As one of Britain’s biggest ever boy bands, their hits over three decades include Shine, Pray, Back for Good, Rule the World and the titular Greatest Days.
This quirky jukebox musical takes a slightly different approach to their story - rather than just telling how they formed and documenting their various exploits, we meet five young girls, all super fans of a boy band.
We follow them to their first ever gig and are shocked by the evening’s tragic ending.
We next meet them some 25 years later as they reunite to see the reformed band and rejoice as they put their various ghosts to bed.
All this action is interspersed with around 15 Take That hits which somehow fit perfectly.
They are performed by five gorgeous boy banders who don’t pretend to be Take That, but every costume, every dance move and every note just scream Robbie, Gary, Jason and co. And they are most definitely better dancers than the original members!
It’s a slick production, written by Tim Firth, a very safe pair of hands, with a really strong cast. I particularly liked understudy Bayley Hart as Debbie, and Rachel Marwood is a warm-hearted Rachel who finally gets her happy ever after.
This is a lovely, nostalgic show which pulls at your heartstrings, too, and be ready to sing Relight My Fire all the way home!
The show continues until Saturday. Visit www.norwichtheatre.org
Review by Sarah Hardy
