'Blood Brothers 2010 Tour' theatre review - Nowt2Do.Com: Listings and Reviews for Bristol and Beyond!


	I am not going to be coy about this; if you have yet to see this show go and buy your ticket. Now. You will not have a better night in a theatre. I think this is what they call the rave review. And why not. I have sat through the great and the terrific and the good and the okay and the mediocre and the just plain bad. These days, thanks to the likes of X Factor and its ilk, a key change can garner a whooping round of applause. But not here. This is the real deal. The songs are so interwoven with the book that there is never a moment during the show when we feel the need to applaud a song because we are watching/listening so closely, absorbed in the whole thing. We save our appreciation until the end. If the man who invented musical theatre let his mind wander ahead to a time when it had become fully evolved his ambition would have landed here. Willy Russell wrote the book, music and lyrics – something almost unheard of. It is from the heart; so much we recognise as part of our own childhood, so much we are glad never happened to us. It may be set in Liverpool but this is a tragedy of Greek proportions. We know from the word go that the story will not end well; beginning as it does with two dead bodies and the distraught souls they leave behind. We know where it is going and yet, through tragic twists and comic turns, we still hope that somehow, something miraculous will happen, a contortion that will allow two tortured boys to carry on living. We cling to it, though we know it will not happen. Despite the fact that Blood Brothers is twenty five years old it is as pertinent today as it was on opening night. The Johnstone Twins are separated at birth, one stays with his skint mother, the other goes to the rich but barren woman she cleans for. One grows up poor, the other privileged. They say the child is the father of the man but here the question is: what is more important, nature or nurture? We experience the childhood, teenage years and early adulthood of the brothers who - by accident or design? - become best friends – blood brothers – though neither knows the truth. We watch as the backstreet games, playground pranks and teenage angst turn to darker fare; crime and depression. Sean Jones as Mickey is quite magnificent. You believe him as a hyperactive seven year old – who is nearly eight – and as the world-weary, drug-addled young man he becomes. Lyn Paul has retuned to the role of Mrs Johnstone again and again and you can see why. She brings an emotional depth and a singing voice that cuts through her apron strings and tugs at our heartstrings. Producer Bill Kenwright, instrumental in turning this into the phenomenon it has become, would doubtless say the crowning glory to his career would be to see his beloved Everton win the Premiership. I happen to think his crowning glory will always be Blood Brothers.