It has been disowned by Take That, and it has yet to find a suitable berth in the West End. But Never Forget, a musical built around the songs of the 1990s boy band, looks like being the latest success in a theatrical genre sparked by the phenomenal popularity of the Abba musical Mamma Mia! Never Forget arrived in Manchester, the birthplace of Take That, to a tumultuous welcome from an audience not only eager to recall the hits of their fast-fading youth, but also steeped in the folklore of the band. By the time the cast and backing band reached the curtain call with an extended medley of greatest hits, the event had taken on the flavour of a gospel revivalist meeting, as actors, dancers, children’s choir and audience stood swaying and singing with arms above their heads.

There was plenty of feel-good music and dance set-pieces before that, deftly woven into a fictional narrative about the efforts of a small-time impresario, Ron Freeman (played by Teddy Kempner), to launch a Take That tribute band, and the on-off marriage plans of its main singer, Ash Sherwood (a winsome performance by Dean Chisnall). The script by Danny Brocklehurst, a television writer whose credits include Shameless and Clocking Off, provided an efficient vehicle for an unpretentious story with a strangely uptight moral sting in its tail. Tom Stoppard certainly won’t be losing any sleep over it.

The boys in the tribute band were loveable scamps – not to mention better singers and dancers than Take That – until one got ideas above his station. Meanwhile, the rapacious record company executive, Annie Borrowman, came off like a pantomime villain, so much so that the actress playing her, Alexis Owen-Hobbs, was rather gracelessly booed when she took her bow.

There many droll cameos, aided by a fund of imaginative technical effects, none more arresting than the “rainfall” that doused the stage and some of the dancers at the end of the first half. The stagehands were still mopping up after the interval.

As always with shows of this kind, success depended on prolonged and calculated manipulation of the sentimental bone. The lyrics of Take That’s songs lack the universal quality that have made Abba’s repertoire so readily applicable to such a format. But there were moments, such as the lovers’ reconciliation scene played out to the strains of A Million Love Songs, that would have melted even the hardest of hearts. It isn’t going to win too many Laurence Olivier Awards, but this was a polished production that pushed all the right buttons.

Until September 1, then touring Copy catalogue

Copy catalogue

–– There was only one Elvis Presley – but 200,000 Elvis tribute acts

–– The Bootleg Beatles claim to be the longest-running tribute act. They got together in March 1980

–– Mamma Mia!, the stage tribute to Abba, has been performed in more than 16 countries

Source: Times database

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