05 December 2018
Newsdesk
Last night, Tim Firth’s award winning musical THE BAND, with the music of Take That held a star studded Gala premiere at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket, raising money for The Elton John Aids Foundation. The record breaking musical will make its home at The Theatre Royal Haymarket for a six-week run before continuing a hugely successful national tour that will continue into March of next year.
Take That were reunited on stage with their former bandmate Robbie Williams for a very special finale performance. Mark Owen, Gary Barlow, and Howard Donald, joined the full cast of the musical onstage, treating the audience, which included David Furnish, Taron Egerton, Elizabeth Hurley, Graham Norton and Ayda Field, to a medley of their huge hits ‘Hold Up A Light’, ‘Never Forget’ and ‘Shine’ before Williams made a surprise entrance to join them for a nostalgia fueled performance of their huge hit, ‘The Flood’.
The BAND Musical will play a six-week West End season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 1 December 2018 to 12 January 2019. The tour will then continue until 16 March 2019.
The Theatre Royal Haymarket was transformed into a spectacular gala, where guests seats in the stalls were replaced with dinner tables which were sold to raise money for Sir Elton’s charity (EJAF Evening Standard and Independent AIDSfree campaign) which works in 23 countries to combat the stigma around the HIV virus, provide treatment and assistance, and motivate governments to help terminate Aids.
THE BAND is a new musical about what it’s like to grow up with a boyband. For five 16 year-old friends in 1992, ‘the band’ is everything. 25 years on, we are reunited with the group of friends, now 40-something women, as they try once more to fulfil their dream of meeting their heroes. It opened at Manchester Opera House on 8 September 2017 to huge critical acclaim and has taken £20 million at the box office.
The musical stars Rachel Lumberg as Rachel, Alison Fitzjohn as Claire, Emily Joyce as Heather, Jayne McKenna as Zoe, AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T Johns, Yazdan Qafouri and Sario Solomon, winners of BBC’s Let It Shine, as The Band, Faye Christall as Young Rachel, Katy Clayton as Young Heather, Rachelle Diedericks as Debbie, Sarah Kate Howarth as Young Claire, Lauren Jacobs as Young Zoe, Martin Miller as Jeff and Andy Williams as Dave.
THE BAND is directed by Kim Gavin and Jack Ryder, designed by Jon Bausor and choreographed by Kim Gavin, with lighting design by Patrick Woodroffe, video design by Luke Halls and sound design by Terry Jardine and Nick Lidster.
Search tickets below.
