The announcement on Take That’s official website is couched in the sternest
terms, a world away from the spandex shorts and joyously thrusting dance
routines of the boyband’s 1990s glory days. “There have been reports in the
press today about a ‘Take That musical’,” it states solemnly. “The band
would like to state categorically that this production is being undertaken
with neither their involvement nor their endorsement. They would wish their
fans and the general public to know that this production is absolutely and
100 per cent nothing to do with Take That.”
The musical causing the boys’ brows to furrow so unbecomingly is Never Forget,
a show based around Take That’s parade of hits. Scripted by Danny
Brocklehurst, a television writer who has worked on Shameless, Clocking Off
and the new ITV drama Talk to Me, it follows the Abba extravaganza Mamma
Mia! and the Queen jubilee We Will Rock You in taking pop classics and
placing them in an all-new theatrical context. Opening in Cardiff in July,
it will then tour in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent –
Robbie Williams’s hometown – before a planned West End launch in the autumn.
Take That’s stony disowning of the show has come as a disappointment to the
Never Forgetteam, not least because the project started out so differently.
“We approached Gary Barlow and EMI back in 2004,” explains Tristan Baker,
one of the show’s producers. “Their response at the time was extremely
positive.” A licensing agreement was signed in April 2006. “Obviously, Take
That hadn’t reformed at the time.”
Baker, full of appropriately hi-NRG enthusiasm, is loath to be negative, but
it seems that Take That’s successful reunion this year threw a spanner in
the works. “To be honest, I’m not sure what the thought processes of an
international pop band are,” he laughs. “When they got back together, it
worked well for us – we were a celebration of the back catalogue, and they
were doing the new stuff. But their focus changed from the beginning of this
year – they had the new album and the Brit Awards. I don’t think the two are
mutually exclusive.”
Brocklehurst, as you might expect from somebody who has written for Shameless,
is somewhat blunter. “They absolutely wanted this to happen until earlier
this year and by the time they wanted to put the brakes on it was too late.
And that smacks to me of, well, when things weren’t going too well, they
were happy for it to happen, then they changed their minds.”
A spokesman for the band said Take That had no further comment to make beyond
that which appears on their website, but Barlow has reportedly sniped the
musical has “the smell of the end of the pier” about it.
“When did end of the pier ever cost £3 million?” chuckles Baker. “We have an
Olivier award-winning choreographer, Karen Bruce, the West End’s go-to
musical supervisor, Mike Dixon . . . it’s a bit of an unfair comment.”
Barlow has been reported as saying that he was looking into taking legal
action, though Baker is amused by the allegation that the musical’s launch
came as a shock to the band. “You know how much time and energy and legal
contracts go into these things – how could we have got to that point without
anybody knowing?”
As Brocklehurst says: “This show couldn’t exist if those songs hadn’t been
licensed and agreed by Gary and everyone else.” Certainly, it’s hard to
imagine that the boys, veterans of some spectacular stage shows, would take
issue with the show’s production values. There’s rain, fire “and we’ve got
flying”, Baker announces happily. Not to mention “fit men and beautiful
women”, including Dean Chisnall, from The Woman in White, as the lead
character, Ash.
The director, Ed Curtis, who brought his touring production of Calamity Jane
to the West End in 2002, realises that Take That fans will expect nothing
less. “Their shows were known for being big and spectacular, and the
costumes stand out in people’s minds. There will be certain things we have
to deliver.”
Take That also need not fear that Never Forget will be a salacious band
biography – rather, it tells the story of a Mancunian Take That tribute act.
“It’s about one guy in particular who has always wanted to be a singer, but
his ambitions haven’t worked out – as happens for so many people,”
Brocklehurst explains. “So he sees an ad to form a band. You realise that
each member is escaping something in his own life. The original strapline
was going to be: ‘Pretending to be someone else helps you find out who you
really are’.”
Given Brocklehurst’s past work, did he ever yearn to write an X-rated pop
exposé? “The first draft had an edgier side to it,” he admits. “There was a
guy who used to work in the porn business, a guy embezzling cash – but
people came to the conclusion that it should be the sort of show you can
take the kids and your gran to. It’s good clean fun. That’s not to say we
don’t deal with proper issues but nothing that’s going to be awkward if mums
are taking their daughters. It’s designed to be a fun night out, so the
story is not Ibsen, let’s put it that way. You’ve got to look at the show
you’re doing. I’ve written for Shameless, but this isn’t that.”
“The genre doesn’t immediately scream Danny Brocklehurst,” Curtis admits, “but
what is so exciting is the way he writes characters. The Paul Abbott stable
he comes from has that depth and that dark humour that we think and we hope
is running through the project. This is the key to how we see the show –
using the genre’s heightened emotions with a story that has characters you
really care about. You don’t always get that in musicals.
“The Madness musical, Our House, really inspired us, and big shows like Les
Misérables and Miss Saigon, which taught us we can care about characters in
musicals.”
Considering that he was among those tarred with the “end-of-the-pier” brush,
Baker remains magnanimous about Barlow and his “wonderful, wonderful songs”.
“Well, life’s too short. If your leading lady breaks a leg, you find a new
leading lady,” he says. “It doesn’t change the fact that this is going to be
a fantastic night of entertainment or the fact that those songs are
stunning. All that changes is that somebody changes their mind. Not
everything changes,” he says – then groans. “Obviously, we’d love to have
input from the boys, as was always the plan. The door’s always open. It
would be fantastic to have their opinion and advice.”
Still, at least one member of the Take That camp remains a potential ally.
“Robbie currently hasn’t said anything but his sister has,” Baker laughs.
“There was a huge page in the Stoke Sentinel with her saying it was a great
idea and that she’ll be telling Robbie. So she’ll certainly be coming to
opening night!”
Never Forget opens at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (08700
402000), on July 20
Do you think Take That should support the musical?
