Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Could It Be Tragic?
The cast of the Take That musical, Never Forget has finally been revealed. Of course, we say finally, this happened about a week or so ago and our laissez faire - certainly lazy at any rate - attitude means that we've only just got around to mentioning it. Here's the pic:-
The one at the back seems to be labouring under the delusion that he's auditioning for the East 17: The Stay Another Day Years musical, while the one on the right appears to be hoping to get a shot at doing Freddie Mercury on Stars in their Eyes.
Of course, we say the Take That musical. Given that the plot of the piece concerns the doings of a Take That tribute band what you are essentially paying to see is a covers band with ideas above their station. If you're really unlikely the writer's imagination will stretch no further than setting the story over one evening in which the band do a quite good gig. With a plot running from the band walking out on stage, performing some songs the buggering off at the end of it, this will surely be the theatrical event of the millennium, but will at least avoid the awkward shoehorning in of songs which normally pervades these sorts of things; Oh, I want to have these Microchips but I'm not sure how long to put them in for. Does anyone know? A minute you say? Only a minute?, etc. We do, of course, jest. It actually takes three minutes to cook a box of Microchips, not one.
And while we realise that the tribute band conceit means they didn't have to try too hard to get five guys who looked like the band, but the actors chosen don't so much look like a third generation photocopy of the band but the third generation of a massively inbred family who spend most of their waking hours munching on uranium rocks for kicks. We've got the cast list in front of us and we still find it impossible to correlate the faces in the pic with the people they're supposed to be. Or the people who are supposed to be the people they're supposed to be. Or something.
Still, there's always a place for both comedy and tragedy in the theatre. They don't have to cover all the bases in the same ninety minutes, though.
The one at the back seems to be labouring under the delusion that he's auditioning for the East 17: The Stay Another Day Years musical, while the one on the right appears to be hoping to get a shot at doing Freddie Mercury on Stars in their Eyes.
Of course, we say the Take That musical. Given that the plot of the piece concerns the doings of a Take That tribute band what you are essentially paying to see is a covers band with ideas above their station. If you're really unlikely the writer's imagination will stretch no further than setting the story over one evening in which the band do a quite good gig. With a plot running from the band walking out on stage, performing some songs the buggering off at the end of it, this will surely be the theatrical event of the millennium, but will at least avoid the awkward shoehorning in of songs which normally pervades these sorts of things; Oh, I want to have these Microchips but I'm not sure how long to put them in for. Does anyone know? A minute you say? Only a minute?, etc. We do, of course, jest. It actually takes three minutes to cook a box of Microchips, not one.
And while we realise that the tribute band conceit means they didn't have to try too hard to get five guys who looked like the band, but the actors chosen don't so much look like a third generation photocopy of the band but the third generation of a massively inbred family who spend most of their waking hours munching on uranium rocks for kicks. We've got the cast list in front of us and we still find it impossible to correlate the faces in the pic with the people they're supposed to be. Or the people who are supposed to be the people they're supposed to be. Or something.
Still, there's always a place for both comedy and tragedy in the theatre. They don't have to cover all the bases in the same ninety minutes, though.
Labels: Musicals, News, Take That
