Hear’Say and Coronation Street star Kym Marsh led a fantastic cast this week as the official Take That musical Greatest Days landed in Cardiff.
Following a tale of five Northern teenage girls obsessed with ‘the band’ who sang Take That’s biggest hits across 25 years of their lives, the show opened with Pray, complete with original choreography from the iconic music video.
Kalifa Burton, Jamie Corner, Archie Durrant, Regan Gascoigne and Alexanda O’Reilly wowed as the band, with their billowing white trousers and tiny vest tops reminiscent of the 90s, when Take That hit peak stardom.
As the girls travelled to the concert, led by Mary Moore as group leader and superfan Debbie, they had the best night of their lives and bonded over their wristbands on the rocks, before it turned into the worst as Debbie was involved in an accident and lost her life.
A time jump 25 years introduced us to the older cast, with Kym Marsh as Rachel, Jamie-Rose Monk as Claire, Rachel Marwood as Heather and Holly Ashton as Zoe. The casting was spot-on with each younger and older version of the girls dressed in their signature colours – pink, green, purple and blue.
A shy, unmarried Rachel had won a competition, winning tickets to see the band in Athens with three extra tickets. She reached out to her school best friends to reunite, after 25 years apart after the loss of Debbie. They all gathered at Manchester Airport to travel to the concert, and sing classic Shine, before some mishaps along the way made the audience laugh out loud and clap along to the cheesy music and the boys’ impressive dance moves.
The girls addressed their issues across the course of the second half, with Claire struggling with her weight after giving up an Olympic diving career, Heather coming out as gay to her family and Rachel refusing proposals as she couldn’t stand the thought of Debbie not being her bridesmaid, all set to the hit catalogue of Never Forget, A Million Love Songs and Patience.
Despite some uncomfortable moments of fat-shaming and dealing with loss, most of the jokes landed perfectly with the audience who let out riotous applause as the girls once again bonded at the rocks with their wristbands, and a promise to move forward, together.
As Rule the World echoed around the Wales Millenium Centre and the show drew to a close, the cast returned to the stage to Relight My Fire and got everyone up and dancing to end the night.
If you were a Take That superfan in the 90s then this is the show for you, as you’ll see yourself in the younger cast and again in the older group, still celebrating the great tunes of the boys!
To find out more and to book tickets, visit the Wales Millennium Centre website here.
Age guidance: 8+ (No Under 2s)
May contain strong language. Please note that all under-16s must be seated with an adult aged 18 or above.
Start time:
Tue – Sat 7.30pm
Thu + Sat 2.30pm
Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes (including an interval).
