Kym and Emilie Shine in Greatest Days
Greatest Days is about love, loss, and acceptance. We get to see the girls grow into strong women and come together over their love for The Band. The journey will make your heart Shine. We talked with the mother-daughter duo, Kym and Emilie, about working together and obviously their favourite Take That song.
At The Grand from Tue 21 – Sat 25 November 2023.
Written by Simon Button
What appealed to you about doing the show?
Kym: Everything, really. I got given the script and it was amazing. The story is beautiful and it has a bit of everything. It’s emotional, it’s inspiring, it’s very funny and I love the characters. Then you add Take That’s amazing music to the mix and what’s not to love, really?
Emilie: I feel the same. I love how the story flits back in time and you learn about these women when they were younger and how they grew up. It’s all about their lives and their music, and as Mum says, it’s so funny and so emotional. It takes you on a rollercoaster through their lives and audiences are going to love it.
Who do you play in it and how would you describe your characters?
Kym: We play Rachel in two different forms. I play the older Rachel and Emilie plays the younger Rachel. It’s really lovely that we play these different versions of the same character and the other characters in the story all have younger and older versions as well. It’s about a group of friends who fell in love with a boyband back in the day, as we all did. [Laughs] For me, it was New Kids on the Block, that’s how old I am. It’s that thing of having a group of friends who all love the same band. Without giving anything away, there’s a bit of a twist to the story when they’re younger and we get to see what’s happened to them since that time. It’s about how the love of a boyband brings them back together.
Kym Marsh as Rachel in Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
Emilie: Young Rachel is fun. It’s great to see the relationship between her group of friends because it’s so true to life. They’re always bickering or taking the mickey out of each other. She’s all about her friends and music, and she’s crazy about the band.
Kym: Something happens that changes all of their lives and it transports you in time, where you see where life has taken them. The love of the band is still there, even as older women, which I think is true of Take That fans. Back in the day, in the early 90s, they had that kind of pull. Then they went away, came back and the fans were still there for them, except they were all like my age now.
LtoR Kym Marsh as Rachel & Emilie Cunliffe as Young Rachel in Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
The original cast of Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
The original cast of Greatest Days. Regan Gascoigne, Kalifa Burton, Archie Durrant, Jamie Corner & Alexanda O'Reilly in GREATEST DAYS. Credit Alastair Muir.
Have you worked together before?
Kym: We’ve sang on stage together before now. [Laughs] I used to get Emilie up on stage to sing with me when she was 14 but we’ve never actually worked together professionally.
Emilie: So it’s a new experience and having Mum with me for support is great. I’ve got two young kids at home and that was my biggest worry. It’s taken a while to get past the dread of leaving the kids because my life has revolved around them.
Kym: The thought of being away from them is worse than when you’re actually in it, because when you are in it, you just make it work. It’s about juggling things and what Emilie has is exactly what I had, which is a really supportive family network. I don’t know what I would have done without my family. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do all the things I’ve done in my career. I had to leave my kids from time to time and when I asked Emilie ‘How did it affect your life?’ she was like ‘Obviously we missed you but we saw you because everyone made more of an effort’.
Were you both Take That fans before you signed up for the show?
Kym: I remember them when they wore leather gear – that very strange styling that they went through at the beginning – and I loved them from the start. What’s great about them is the music and people who come along to the show are going to love it. It doesn’t matter how old they are. Take That’s music speaks to people of all different ages and everybody knows them.
Emilie: Mum listened to their music when I was younger, then when they came back she went to a concert and was sending me pictures and videos. I was like ‘Oh my God, amazing!’ Now I love them and I’m a big fan myself.
Have you met any of them?
Kym: I have, yes, on several occasions. Me and Mark Owen were signed to the same record label for a while. I’ve met Robbie several times and Gary too. I’ve met them all at some stage and it’s been a privilege because they’re so talented. There’s a reason their music has such longevity. It’s timeless.
Do you have a favourite song in the show?
Emilie: Everyone loves a bit of Shine, don’t they? And I love Back for Good. I’m a sucker for that song.
LtoR Emilie Cunliffe as Young Rachel & Mary Moore as Debbie in Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
Kym: It reminds me of my son because he was born in 1995 and it was number one on the day he was born. So obviously I love Back for Good. I also love Patience and Hold Up a Light, which is a song I feel gets forgotten but what a tune that is.
The original cast of Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
The original cast of Greatest Days. LtoR Regan Gascoigne, Archie Durrant, Jamie Corner, Kalifa Burto & Alexanda O'Reilly in Greatest Days. Credit Alastair Muir.
What are you most looking forward to about taking the show around the country?
Emilie: It’s my first time doing something like this, so it’s an unknown to me. Speaking about the kids again, they’re going to come and stay with us at different venues whenever they can, although one of them is in school so it depends on term times. But I can’t wait really because it’s new and exciting.
Kym: Obviously I know what it feels like to go around the country and every single night is different. I’ve worked in television for a long time now and it’s brilliant but there’s nothing quite like a live audience. There’s nothing like that buzz of being on stage in front of people, having that instant reaction, knowing there’s going to be laughter in different places, listening to how people respond to the music. I’m also looking forward to being with Emilie and watching her taking her first steps in theatre. I’m having a proud mum moment all the time.
What do you hope audiences will take away from seeing the show?
Emilie: Like I said before, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. You laugh, you sing, you have so much fun, yet at the same time there’s a lot of drama in it. If it was me watching it, I’d come out of the theatre and be like ‘Woah, what a story and what fun that was!’
Kym: I agree. You’re going to come out feeling all sorts of different emotions but fundamentally you’ll be going ‘What a great night!’ The story is brilliant, the music is brilliant and everybody will be on their feet at the end.
Book tickets
Relight Your Fire with this sensational new production of Take That’s smash-hit musical Greatest Days.
Greatest Days features more than 15 record-breaking Take That songs, alongside a heart-warming and hilarious story of love, loss and laughter from award-winning writer Tim Firth that will make your heart Shine.
At The Grand from Tue 21 – Sat 25 November 2023.
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