The Band

My thanks to Connect for their invitation to see their latest production, “The Band” at the Dolman Theatre Newport. This latest Juke Box Musical from the pen of Tim Firth, is based on the music and Fan based adoration of one of the most popular boy bands in the last thirty years; “Take That”.

The story opens at a period in 1992 when the lives of five 16year old girls is clearly shown to be based around the love of each other, the worship of Take That and the close friendship that binds it all together. When tragedy strikes in their happiest hour, with the accidental death of one of the girls, the friends go their separate ways and we see them reunited 25yrs later, to once again share their love of the group that once bound the friendship together.

The five young 16yr olds Racheal [ Brooke Pratlett]    Zoe [Charlie Warren]    Claire [Fionn Bassett]     Heather  [Lola O’Connell]   Debbie [Carys Vaughan] created the atmosphere of shared friendships with emphasis on the characterisation of each individual. There was strength in this story line that can often be missing in the genre of the Juke Box Musical and the girls worked very hard to project and deliver the story against the active background vocals. Their performances were very supportive with effective comic timing and good humour. The emotional scene on the death of Debbie was well choreographed, and the back projection technique enhanced the whole effect very well.

Taking on the sight and sounds of pop legends will never be an easy task especially when your audience has such great expectations and can sing every word.” The boys” took up the challenge and gave it their best shot. Joseph Cross, Jordan Wilkins, Joshua Chubb, Geraint Hobbs and Logan Walker, moved in and out of the story with songs that meant so much to so many. Musical harmony and stage movement is never an easy task and some of the harmonies were lost in the activity of the stage movement. It must be said however that the audience were very much enjoying the nostalgia.

25years on, the friends played by   Aimee Taylor [Rachel]   Ruth Rees [Zoe]   Kesia Elliott [Claire]  Nicola Christensen [Heather]   once again meet up to share their dreams of meeting their  heroes. Some good comic timing and strong emotional rapport was shown within these scenes with excellent story telling. The girls worked well together and brought the story to life.   

Cameo roles can often be underrated,  and this was clearly shown as Tom Bassett as Dave stole the scene on every entrance. His characterisation within multiple roles was excellent, his movement around the stage was well timed as was his body language and facial expression. Excellent casting.

Todd Slaughter- Rowan as Jeff, played the understanding partner of Rachel very well and pleased the audience with an unexpected wedding scene to complete the story.

Although the story lines  were sometimes masked by the background singing and movement, the emotional story of friendship came across very well and with full cast numbers the musicality shone through showing the depth of the musical ability of the cast.

My thanks to you all for this nostalgic trip.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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