52 Films by Women Vol 7. 45. GREATEST DAYS (Director: Coky Giedroyć)
Jukebox musicals can be extremely lucrative. The hits of a popular artist are employed in the service of a flimsy plot. Audiences don’t ask, ‘what happens next’, rather ‘how will it feature my favourite song?’ One of the most financially successful jukebox musicals of the latest twenty years is Mamma Mia! , directed on stage and screen by Phyllida Lloyd and utilising the songbook of the Swedish pop quartet, Abba. The film brought together Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski and Julie Walters - the triple act we never knew we wanted. Not quite as successful – and not yet turned into a film - is We Will Rock You , featuring the songs of Queen. Greatest Days , written by Tim Firth and directed by Coky Giedroy ć , utilises songs made famous by the band Take That – Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Howard Donald. It is based on Firth’s play, ‘The Band’, first staged in 2017 about a group of female pop fans who are spuriously reunited twenty-five years later. In the film, Radio Cli...