Briony Albert is suspended 30ft above the stage as the tail of an elephant on take that tour 2026, turning a single stage role into the tour’s sharpest talking point. Take That are bringing the show to Manchester’s Etihad Stadium this weekend, where the performance is landing in front of crowds after videos of Albert in action spread wider online.
Manchester and the elephant reveal
Albert, a professional dancer, said she is excited to be in Manchester and described the number as one of the show’s more surprising elements. “Out of nowhere, the stage opens up and suddenly this huge elephant comes out,” she said, adding: “That's quite surprising and fun as well, because you're not expecting that if you haven't seen the show before.”
The sequence depends on the tail being a live part of the reveal rather than a static prop. Albert said the role has always been part of the Take That Circus Tour idea, and she first played the elephant’s tail during Take That’s last Circus tour 17 years ago. She has worked with Take That for the last 17 years, which is why this piece lands with the precision of a repeatable stage cue, not a one-off stunt.
Briony Albert’s three-month reset
Albert said she had to rebuild the physical strength for the role ahead of this year’s tour. “I very quickly realised I did not have the strength there I thought I did,” she said. “So it's taken me about three months just to make sure when I was in rehearsals I didn't look like an idiot.”
That preparation sits underneath the spectacle. Albert also performs throughout the concert at ground level, and she said, “This outfit allows me to move in a more ethereal and elegant way than the last time I did it.”
Why the role spread online
“People have said 'Why do we need to have someone dangling off the back of the elephant? We could have just stuck a piece of plastic off the back',” Albert said. Her answer was direct: “But it just makes it interesting. It's something to talk about. And I'm engaging with it because why not?”
“It's fun. It's silly. It's funny. It's enjoyable,” she said, which is why the clip has travelled beyond the stadium floor. Take That are set to play Manchester’s Etihad Stadium this weekend, and the viral response has turned one unusual role into a bigger part of the conversation around the Take That Circus Tour 2026.
