I first saw Blood Brothers on stage in Edinburgh in 1998, having been urged to see it by a friend, who said it was their favourite theatrical production. I went. I saw. I loved.
This was the first time I had seen it since, and the basic story I remembered, if not the full details, as the waters of time had washed away some of the sands of memory in the intervening 23 years.
Written by Willy Russell, Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving tale of twins who, separated at birth, grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with fateful consequences.
Bill Kenwright’s production of the Liverpool-set drama – with a blatant nod to Kenwright’s beloved Everton Football Club appearing on one of the sets – surpassed 10,000 performances in London’s West End, one of only three musicals ever to achieve that milestone. And it’s easy to see why.
With the narrator (Robbie Scotcher) setting the scene, we meet the downtrodden Mrs Johnstone, played by Amy Robbins, who brings so much charm to the role it’s impossible not to love her character from the word go, as she becomes pregnant, then falls pregnant again, and then again, with twins.
Mrs Johnstone’s job as a housecleaner brings her into contact with Mrs Lyons, who is unable to have children, and wants to adopt one of the twins – and the women form a pact.
Playing Mickey, the twin who stays with his mother, is Alexander Patmore, with Joel Benedict as his sibling, Eddie. The pair are skilled in their craft, capturing the youthful energies of seven-(nearly eight)-year-olds, moving through their teens and then into adulthood, in a believable manner. They harness the energies of the young and playful perfectly, but Patmore gives a tour de force of Mickey’s mental collapse near the end, with the complete change in his body language and posture as his descent begins is masterful.
Danielle Corlass as Linda does an incredible job of capturing her character through the various phases of her life – from a squeaky youngster (evoking Aveline from Bread), to a seductive teen, and then a concerned wife as Mickey’s mental health suffers.
This play, more than ever, echoes with the society in which we live, at a time when more and more people are being prescribed medication to help with their mental health.
Also of note was Paula Tappenden, who I last saw on the King’s Theatre stage in 1989, when she played the lead Dalek in Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure. In the role of Mrs Lyons, she is given far more to do, making her dislikeable through her haughty manner. There were times when her withering stare towards Mrs Johnstone could have exterminated her a thousand times over.
For a play that is 80 per cent of the time played for laughs as a comedy, it’s the remainder, as it becomes more serious and we see that the happy times of youth don’t always last, that stick in the mind.
Everything in life depends on decisions – to turn left, or not. Mrs Lyons picking a twin, whose life is entirely different from his brother, but their paths continue to cross in life – and then death.
One thing that stuck in my mind when watching Blood Brothers again was a comment from the celebrated TV writer Russell T Davies, writer of dramas such as Years and Years, and this year’s lauded It’s A Sin. He commented that the only downfall of the story is the classist conclusion, where Mickey is the one who goes off the rails, as it’s the ‘poor’ man, rather than the ‘rich’ man, who goes off the rails, suggesting that perhaps if it was Eddie who had had the breakdown, it would have been an even more dramatic conclusion.
Blood Brothers has been affectionately christened the ‘Standing Ovation Musical’, and it more than lived up to that billing, with the audience in raptures at the end. It’s a tremendous production, with memorable songs, which you’ll be humming all the way home. Just like Marilyn Monroe.
Tickets for Blood Brothers, which is at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow until Saturday, October 9, can be bought HERE, with prices starting from £13.
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