Rewrite my fire

by Lizz Brain

He is starring at the Savoy Theatre in Never Forget – a show about a group of no-hopers who get together to form a Take That tribute band.

That That. Ish.

The show is linked together with the boy band’s back catalogue, from It Only Takes a Minute and Million Love Songs to Relight My Fire and Pray.

It features pyrotechnics, a jaw-dropping rain sequence and watertight dancing. With an audience base of 30-something original Take That fans, teenagers who became fans with the reformed band (minus Robbie), and groups out for a night of partying, the show is a pop concert with a story.

“Everyone ends up dancing in the aisles,” says 32-year-old Eaton James, who plays stripper Dirty Harry, who later becomes Take That’s Howard.

“ I went to see the Take That revival gig at Milton Keynes and thought how slick they were. It was a brilliant show.

“Then I auditioned to be part of this – and what’s great is that it’s not the story of Take That, it’s the story of a group of guys who create a Take That tribute band.”

True, the story is thin, but that makes it easy to follow.

“I joined the show when we did a tour, then got a year’s contract for the West End’’ says Eaton. “I’m only on stage for a couple of minutes before I’m stripped to my underpants and it did feel a bit weird at first, especially when I’d got family and friends in!”

His family still live in Hinckley, where he grew up, although he was born in nearby Nuneaton.

Eaton attended John Cleveland College and was a member of the Concordia Theatre in Hinckley. He went onto train at Melton Mowbray College, studying for a BTEC in Performing Arts, before winning a place at drama school in Guildford.

Since then he’s been in hits including Les Mis, Joseph and Miss Saigon.

“I still go back to Leicestershire from time to time, so the words Never Forget really do mean something for me!”

Info

Never Forget plays the Savoy Theatre in London until November 15 then transfers to the Lyric Theatre, London for a run which starts on November 22 and lasts until April 2009.