Singer Gary Barlow has promised that his upcoming West End show based on the career of Take That will be an all British production.
Due to come to theatres in the next four to five years, it will mark a second collaboration with writer Tim Firth following their musical adaptation of the Calendar Girls story.
Speaking at the opening of The Girls at London’s Phoenix Theatre on Tuesday, the pair told the Press Association: “It will be genuinely a British musical, it won’t be something else, or try to sound like an American show.”
While he has shared few details about his plans for the Take That production, Gary will soon have the key cast members, as the live final of BBC singing contest Let It Shine this weekend will reveal which all-male group will play the original band.
Gary did not reveal which of the remaining three groups was his favourite to take on the role, but said he would definitely be taking lessons learned from The Girls onto his next project.
Commenting on seeing his first ever musical come to one of the country’s most prestigious stages after starting life as a small production in a village hall in Yorkshire, he said: “It’s weird after five years working on something to finally see it open.
“It has been the best fun.”
Fab night @thegirlsmusical Laughed, cried and the icing on the 'considerably bigger buns' was a performance by @GaryBarlow & #TimFirth ???? pic.twitter.com/RTMEEgy92j
— Nicky Sweetland (@NickySweetland) February 22, 2017
Gary delighted the opening night audience by joining the cast to lead a musical finale.He also invited to the stage the original Women’s Institute members who created the famous nude calendar to raise money for cancer patients 19 years ago.To date, he said, they had raised more than £5 million.Asked what viewers could expect from the show, Gary said: “Lots of nakedness, lots of laughs, a very emotive story, and an amazing true story.”Tim added: “The hope is that people will laugh, then they’ll cry, then they’ll laugh so much that they forget they cried.”