BWW Reviews: BLOOD BROTHERS, King's Theatre, Glasgow, November 4 2014
When a show has been running for as long as Blood Brothers has (24 years in the West End and 19 years touring regularly) it would be easy to imagine that it could become tired. Blood Brothers was the first musical that I ever saw and I was keen to see how I would feel about it fifteen years later.
I appreciated everything about Blood Brothers so much more this time around. The production feels fresh and is in no way dated. Set in Liverpool, Mrs Johnstone has more children than she can handle and finds herself single and pregnant again, this time with twins. Her weathly employer offers to take one of her babies and raise it as her own and, feeling desperate, Mrs Johnstone agrees and promises to never tell the children that they were once part of a pair. Despite attempts to keep the two apart, the boys form a close bond and as we are told at the beginning of Act One, tragedy strikes.
For the two-week run in Glasgow Marti Pellow has stepped into the role of the narrator. While he remains a firm favourite with the home crowd and adds a very sinister element to the part, I'm not entirely convinced by his performance. I thought he struggled with his diction and he seemed to really be straining to hit the high notes.
The undeniable star of the show is Maureen Nolan. While the rest of the cast gave strong performances, it was her vocals that gave me chills. I also thought Sean Jones was excellent in the role of Mickey - his portrayal of the character's childhood was brilliant and it was easy to believe that there was a seven year old boy onstage.
While Blood Brothers could hardly be described as an uplifting night at the theatre, it is an excellent piece of storytelling. There is a reason that this show is labelled a classic and it is easy to see why it remains so popular after all these years.
Blood Brothers runs at the King's Theatre until November 15th.
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