Take That hopefuls line up for musical

Updated 16.22 Thu May 03 2007

Aspiring Take That wannabes have been lining up for a starring role in a new musical about the group.

The show - Never Forget - features the boy band's greatest hits and is a fictional story about a Take That tribute band.

The real Take That have refused to endorse the show but a host of hopefuls still turned out for the auditions in Covent Garden

The real Take That have refused to endorse the show but a host of hopefuls still turned out for the auditions in Covent Garden.

At the front of the queue was Craig Edgley, at 17 the youngest auditionee who set off from his home in Grantham, Lincs, at 6am.

He said: "I've come down with my mum, she is a massive Take That fan. I heard about the auditions when I went to a convention and met Toyah Wilcox and she said 'you should go for this musical, you remind me of Robbie'."

He sang Moon Dance for the judges, who praised his "energy, enthusiasm and spirit".

Jay McManus, 23, originally from Weymouth in Dorset, who also appeared in the Osmonds Christmas Show in the US and Spirit of the Damned in China, also turned up for the audition.

He added: "I'm not really a Take That fan, although I respect them because they write their own music. Gary Barlow is a bit too heavy for me and Mark Owen is a bit too short, so maybe I could be Howard or Jason."

Never Forget opens at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on July 20. The musical features Take That's hits which include Relight My Fire, Pray and Back For Good as well as the show's title song.

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