Well this is exciting… for years the music of Take That has featured in hit stage show ‘The Band’ from the writer of ‘Calendar Girls’ and now the show is headed to the big screen in a big budget adaptation that carries the songs of British pop icons Take That over to the big screen.
‘Greatest Days’ is an epic movie musical that marries the heartfelt story of a group of women who grew up loving a boyband with a series of fantastical song and dance sequences that take us from 1930s MGM-style musicals to Magic Mike-style modern moves, set to the songs of one of the UK’s most successful and loved musical acts.
Speaking about the iconic songs featured in the movie director Coky Giedroyc says, “The thing about Take That songs is that whether they’re anthems and big bangers, or some of the tiniest, gentlest ballads, they’re all so redemptive and full of joy. We found, as we were working on the script with Tim [Firth], that every single song perfectly underscores an emotional moment in the story. It’s extraordinary.”
That, Giedroyc says, is not just what makes the music of Take That so enduring but so versatile. Over the course of Greatest Days, as part of a process of reimagining their music for a different medium, the production has pulled their classic songs apart, to see what’s inside them. To understand what makes them tick.
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OFFICIAL SUMMARY
Growing up in Clitheroe in Lancashire in 1993, 16-year-old Rachel (Lara McDonnell) and her gang of four best friends – Debbie (Jessie Mae Alonzo), Claire (Carragon Guest), Zoe (Nandi Hudson) and Heather (Eliza Dobson) – idolise the boyband they tune in religiously every week to watch on Top Of The Pops.
In times of trouble, Rachel even summons the Boys – played by Aaron Bryan, Dalvin Sol, Joshua Jung, Mark Samaras and Mervin Noronha – from her imagination and into her reality. And when the Boys appear, the world around the girls comes alive, magical realism turning their mundane surroundings into glorious musical numbers, all choreographed to brilliantly reimagined new versions of Take That’s biggest songs, including Never Forget, Back For Good, Shine, Rule The World, Greatest Days and many more.
After a life-changing event sees the young girls go their separate ways, they reunite 25 years later, when Rachel (played in this other timeline by Aisling Bea) wins a local radio competition to see the boys on their reunion tour in Greece. Inviting the older Claire (Jayde Adams), Zoe (Amaka Okafor) and Heather (Alice Lowe) along for the ride, Rachel and her old pals’ journey to the Greek capital of Athens on a vibrant and hilarious musical odyssey that will see them get into scrapes, face up to old demons, and discover that their greatest days may yet be ahead of them