Finding Neverland Composers/Lyricists Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy

GARY BARLOW has captivated audiences worldwide, starting with his popular band Take That in the 1990s and continuing through a flourishing solo career. With over fifty million records sold, along with three Number 1 singles and two Number 1 albums as a solo artist, Barlow has earned his place as one of Britain’s most successful singer-songwriters. He has also made a name for himself on television, as the head judge for three seasons of the singing competition, “The X Factor UK.” 2012 was a particularly banner year for Barlow: within a month of organizing the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert — where he was honored with an Order of the British Empire — Barlow and Take That played at the Olympic closing ceremony in London and were broadcast to nearly 750 million viewers.

Barlow entered the limelight at just 18, when casting agent Nigel Martin-Smith heard an early demo of his “A Million Love Songs.” Martin-Smith, who was looking to start a boy-band, was taken with Barlow’s strong vocals and his singular songwriting voice, and he chose to build his band with Barlow as its creative center. Take That began performing in 1990, and quickly developed an international fan base: it went on to chart fifty-four Number 1 hits and thirty-five Number 1 albums worldwide. Their single “Back for Good” in 1995, which was written and sung by Barlow, hit Number 7 on the American Billboard charts, marking the band’s ascendance as an international brand. The band’s mega-popularity in England was so significant that, as the New York Times reported, the announcement in 1996 that the group planned to disband caused “weeping girls [to] build a shrine of flowers and candles on Oxford Street in London,” while the British children’s crisis hotline, Childline, was swamped with calls from “many children who had built their lives around the band and now faced a void.”

After separating for nearly a decade to pursue solo projects, Take That officially reunited in 2006, and is currently recording a new album. In recent years, Barlow has balanced his band commitments and television persona with a thriving solo career. His most recent solo album, Since I Saw You Last, went Double Platinum, making it his most successful album yet. Now he’s embarking on a new adventure, writing the lyrics and music for the musical Finding Neverland with longtime collaborator Eliot Kennedy.

Julia Bumke is a second-year dramaturgy student in the A.R.T./Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.