Sheffield Lyceum – until 20 October 2018
5*****
The Band arrived triumphantly into Sheffield this week, so it seemed apt that I attended press night with the girl I met on my first day of senior school aged 11. 36 years later we saw a musical that epitomises friendship.
16 year old Rachel (Faye Christell) has been friends with Debbie (Rachelle Diedericks) since they were 6, together they all hang around in a tight knit group with flirty, boy-mad Heather (Katy Clayton), studious Zoe (Lauren Jacobs) and sporty Claire (Sarah Kate Howarth).
When Debbie wins tickets to see their boys, The Band, it feels like they have had the best night of their night; vowing to be friends forever, nothing can destroy their friendship. But tragedy strikes and the girls end up going their separate ways and never speaking again.
25 years later, in their early 40’s, Rachel (Rachel Lumberg) wins a competition to see their boys again, with a weekend in Prague. Through modern technology she tracks down the others and meeting at Manchester Airport she is reunited with Heather (Emily Joyce), Zoe (Jane Mckenna) and Claire (Alison Fitzjohn). A weekend of reminiscing begins and the girls reignite a friendship they thought they had lost for ever.
Set against a backdrop of Take That songs, this is one of the best shows I ever seen. The Band (AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T Johns, Yazdan Qafouri, Sario Solomon) won their roles on the BBC show “Let it Shine” where they competed for the roles. The band are lyrically outstanding, adding depth and meaning to Gary Barlow’s lyrics, giving a resonance to the scene’s in which they appear.
Tim Firth has an amazing gift to be able to write fabulously strong women characters. There are real women, and you can identify with everyone of them. And whilst they are all amazing, it’s the character of Claire that shines for me. Alison Fitzjohn breaks your heart when she explains how she lost her dreams of being an Olympic diver when she started to hang around with the food she was banned from eating. Still sleeping in her single bed, at her parents house in the same town, for her the biggest journey was getting to Manchester Airport.
They realise the tragedy that broke them apart should have been the very thing that kept them together. But when they act as bridesmaids at Rachel’s wedding to Jeff (the multi-talented Martin Miller) you have sense that nothing will ever divide them again.
The Band is an emotional rollercoaster, you will laugh, you will cry and you will be glad that you know 36 years later you have an amazing friend still by your side
In Sheffield until Saturday 20 October and on tour around the UK