Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers used to be my favourite musical. And in some ways it still is. It was the first play/musical I really fell in love with. I’ve seen Blood Brothers more times than I’ve seen Grease. My parents were always like “no not Blood Brothers again, how about some Shakespeare or Tom Stoppard or another musical? Or what about an opera, I’m sure you’d love the opera.” And I did go to see lots of other plays and musicals and eventually I even agreed to see an opera (which was a very good decision) and I enjoyed them and some of them I did see more than once like The Mousetrap and West Side Story (and there are loads of operas I’ve seen more than once, I’ve probably seen The Magic Flute more times than Grease).

Then I got into opera and I stopped seeing musicals but eventually once I’d seen most operas at least twice, I started to get interested in musicals again, I saw We Will Rock You and Grease (of course) and the other musicals I’ve reviewed on here and I kind of got thinking, well I’ve got to go and see Blood Brothers again haven’t I? That was always my favourite. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. It wasn’t that I was bored with it, I was just scared I was going to go, realise it was complete rubbish and feel really embarrassed that I’d given the show so much of my life (and my pocket money).

But anyway I finally went. For maybe the first five minutes, I wasn’t completely into it (although I loved the overture) but as soon as the first scene between Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons happened, I was just hooked. It is just one of the most involving and moving stories I’ve ever seen or read. It has the odd plot hole lying around (which you could also say about all my favourite operas) but you don’t notice that. There is just so much in the story.

Willy Russell wrote the book (that’s the musical’s equivalent of the libretto) and the lyrics, as well as composing the music. That’s unusual. Wagner did everything in his operas and to be honest he fucked it up a bit, some of that libretto could be cut down to half the length, he just says the same thing over and over again and it’s just boring. Even Wagner’s music’s boring except for Die Meistersinger which is basically The X Factor in German. Leoncavallo seems to be the only opera composer who seems to be any good at libretti and composition.

But Willy Russell does really well with everything too. I do have a few problems with the music which I’ll go into later but first of all, the book is brilliant. He has a big story to tell and he manages to scale it down to something like 90 minutes. And in that time he covers a good 20 years. You follow the stories not only of the twins but also their parents (well Eddie’s adopted parents and Mickey’s mam), the twins’ older brother Sammy and their friend Linda, who is loved by both Mickey and Eddie.

The text is very clever and witty, some of the humour is a bit puerile but he only uses that kind of humour when his characters are in a puerile stage of their lives and even though I still find that sort of thing really funny, half the fun is watching the characters being delighted by swearwords/obsessed with sex the way most seven/fourteen year olds are. But it’s not all jokes of course. There’s the Narrator, who is just terrifying (I’m sure he never used to be but he creeps me out now) and the bad luck and superstition is chilling rather than silly. Then of course the ending is heartrendingly sad and there are actually sad bits all the way through, I just didn’t notice them so much when I was younger. Russell can move the story from happiness to sadness and the writing is so clever, your emotions go wherever he wants him to. It’s manipulative but in such a rewarding way.

The lyrics are also good. You do get the odd dodgy rhyme and cringe-making moment but mostly it’s far cleverer than it seems at first. Russell’s lyrics rhyme and scan and make you laugh but at the same time he’s also making a point.

As for the music, Russell has actually composed some good songs. They are catchy songs and they do help to create the atmosphere on the play. The Narrator’s ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ is quite a frightening song whereas Eddie’s ‘I’m Not Saying a Word’ is sweet and romantic, Mrs Johnstone’s ‘Marilyn Monroe’ and ‘Living on the Never Never’ songs are really haunting and I just love the modulation in Living on the Never Never, I always loved that but I didn’t always know it was called modulation. You know in Leporello’s Catalogue Aria where it’s all funny then in the middle it just changes and you kind of see the darker side of Don Giovanni’s exploits? It’s obviously not as good as that because there’s only one Mozart and also Russell’s song is sad all the way through but it’s thrilling in the same sort of way, you really feel it inside you. Mickey’s ‘Long Sunday Afternoon’ wasn’t a song I liked much before but I loved it this time. The slowness of it and the almost random way the lines are sung shows Mickey’s boredom (which also used to make me bored) but it’s a beautiful song with a great originality about it

But the problem with the music – which also affects the lyrics – is that the musical doesn’t have many songs. The same songs appear over and over again. ‘Marilyn Monroe’ is sung three times – the lyrics are mostly different although Mrs Johnstone does keep mentioning Marilyn Monroe and dancing (it’s actually pretty clever the many ways Russell uses the word dancing) but the music is pretty much all the same with few variations. ‘My Child’ and ‘That Guy’ have the same tune and it also appears as ‘My Friend’ in the middle of ‘Long Sunday Afternoon’. ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ appears six times in total and (although I never realised this before) ‘Kids’ Game’ has almost the same chorus and even though the music of the verses isn’t quite the same, it basically follows the same pattern. ‘Easy Terms’ (which is sung through once and partly repeated later) and ‘Light Romance’ have the same tune and the same chorus (‘Living on the Never Never’). Then there are a couple of other songs which feature more than once but only briefly, not the whole song.

But that only leaves two songs that don’t appear anywhere else in the musical – ‘I’m not Saying a Word’ and ‘Miss Jones’. Then there’s also the overture which is stunning – the cast pretty much just sing oooo the whole time but it’s very exciting and beautifully sung.

All the songs are great but it would have been nice to have a few different songs as well. There are always good reasons for the same song to be heard again, there is always a link between the scenes – even ‘Kids’ Game’ shares a superstition theme with ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ - but maybe it would have been even better if there were either a couple more different songs or if the songs that appeared more than once were a bit more varied musically.

Another thing that I think would make the musical even better is a bigger ensemble. For one thing, they could have two covers for every role like Grease (some musicals have three or even four covers for some roles) and there wouldn’t be any need to panic every time there were two male cast members or two female cast members off. Sometimes when I’ve been, they’ve had to call in people at the last minute because they just don’t have enough cast members. I expect they do have people who are kind of on call anyway but if they just had a bigger ensemble, there would be less reason to worry. And also, it would mean more voices in the big ensembles and it would be the most amazing sound.

Also I think more people would really help being out the harmonies. In ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ there are quite a few different musical lines but only the main tune really comes over strongly because that’s what most people seem to be singing. Also the actress playing Linda is usually crying by this point, either because she really is upset by the story or because she’s just done her big crying scene and she hasn’t stopped yet (or is still acting) so it’s unusual for her line to come out really strongly. Mrs Lyons has a high descant line which is really nice but she’s not at the front of the stage and the actress is partly turned away for some of the song so her line doesn’t come over strongly either. If they could get the harmonies and melody evenly balanced, I think the effect would be really amazing. The programme mentions that there was once a production using a big choir and it says ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ sounded especially good and I can really imagine it did.

But in some ways I wouldn’t want them to change a thing. It’s such a powerful, moving piece of theatre as it is and it’s got a huge following of fans, the programme says there are people who have seen it over 100 times. So in a way it’s perfect already. It makes people love the show and how could you improve on that? The changes I’ve suggested might (or might not, I don’t really know what I’m talking about) make it a better work of art but probably nothing could give the play a greater emotional impact.

I noticed a few little differences in the performance like when Brenda comes to Linda’s wedding, she now wears a nice dress instead of a suit which I think is probably more realistic, if someone invited me to a wedding there’s no way I’d wear a suit but maybe that’s why I never get invited to weddings. Then there’s a scene where Mickey and Eddie go to the cinema to watch some naughty films and when they came out they meet Linda and her friend Brenda and the lads try to pretend they’ve been to a non-naughty film. Linda then says she and Brenda went to see the naughty film. I’m sure the girls never used to be in the cinema scene but this time, they were there. It’s just a small change but I really liked it.

Niki Evans sang the role of Mrs Johnstone. She came fourth in The X Factor the year that Rhydian shockingly only finished second. Actually, Niki coming fourth was a bit of a shock too since it meant that horrible cringe-making Same Difference were the final.

I really liked Niki though, I wouldn’t have minded so much if Rhydian had finished second to her. Niki really could sing well and she did perform her pop songs in an emotional way. But before I went to see her, I did kind of have reservations about her singing Mrs Johnstone. For one thing, the role is usually taken by women in their 40s or 50s, Niki is in her 30s so I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to bring the emotional depth to the role at that age, especially as the actors playing her children might be well be the same age as her or maybe even older. And of course, Mrs Johnstone is a big acting role as well. She’s feisty and funny and although the role is usually given to a pop singer, my favourite Mrs Johnstones are usually the understudies who have lots of training and experience as an actor. Also, Mrs Johnstone usually has quite a big rock-style voice and Niki always seemed more like a ballad singer.

So I was a bit worried about how Niki would cope but I really wanted to see her. And she really amazed me. Definitely one of the best Mrs Johnstones I’ve seen. She sings beautifully and she manages the rock style really well but she’s also an extremely talented actress. She’s completely at home on the stage and her comic timing is perfect. She was moving in the sad bits but you could also see her kind and motherly side – she was even getting motherly towards Mrs Lyons to begin with. At first I had a slight problem with the idea of giving one of your twins away (not something I’d ever worried about before) but in Niki’s performance you could really see the emotions that prompted it – sympathy for Mrs Lyons, a kind-hearted nature, and sheer desperation. Better to give a child to her rich employer than putting him into care where anything could happen.

Mrs Lyons was played by a much younger performer than usual. Mrs Lyons is an interesting role because you can play her as a completely nice person who gets caught up in something horrible, a right bitch who doesn’t deserve a child or someone who’s obviously off her trolley to start with. I always prefer the nice person interpretation so I was happy that Vivienne Carlyle was such a lovely Mrs Lyons. She also had some bitchy moments and mad moments but she was just so lovely to begin with. She seemed very sweet and young and you could tell how much she wanted a baby. She also has a beautiful singing voice, small but sweet and it’s a shame Mrs Lyons doesn’t even have more to sing. I would love to see Vivienne as Mrs Johnstone, the role she’s covering.

Actually both Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons seemed much younger than before. I used to think they were practically old ladies now I don’t even really think of them as ‘the grown-ups’. Niki is definitely younger than most Mrs Johnstones (although she had been made up to look older) and I think Vivienne is younger than a lot of Mrs Lyons’ but also I think I’ve grown up a bit so I’m identifying with the grown-up characters more than the children now. This time, I actually thought the children were sweet. I never used to think they were sweet. I used to think they were really fun and cool and I just wanted to play with them. Now I’d quite like to adopt them… but I won’t. This musical kind of puts me off the idea of adopting.

Mickey and Eddie were played by understudy Karl Greenwood, replacing Stephen Palfreman (I’ve seen him as Mickey before) and Simon Willmont. And there’s another weird thing. I always used to be in love with Eddie. I thought he was just adorable. This time, I find Eddie a bit annoying but I adore Mickey. Weird.

Maybe part of the reason why I love Mickey now is because Karl Greenwood is so brilliant. He was lovely. As a seven year old, he just seemed to be having a great time (he even enjoyed being ‘pissed off’ because he got to say a naughty word) and there was so much inventiveness in his performance, additions I’d never seen before. Karl didn’t just ride his imaginary horse, he tied it to the wall or the door so it didn’t run away and stroked it. He made little noises and pulled faces and it was great.

As a moody, hormonal teenager he was also very funny and again his body language was really convincing, the horniness and foot-shuffling embarrassment. Then as the Narrator takes you through the Summer Sequences, you gradually see him growing up and becoming more relaxed. The embarrassment does return when Eddie finally gets him to ask Linda out but then his determination to do just that and That Kiss really are very sexy.

Towards the end, the actor playing Mickey has yet another test of his abilities. Mickey’s desperation for money leads him to turn to crime, just once. He gets caught, goes to prison, becomes depressed and never really recovers. Karl’s performance was clever and heartbreaking. It was one of the best portrayals of depression I’ve ever seen onstage. The slow movements, the feeling he could break at any moment, it was all very sharp and real. Horrible to watch but completely compelling.

Simon Wilmont wasn’t a bad Eddie. I think the reason I didn’t like him as much as some of the other Eddies I’ve seen is because I’ve changed. He was very sweet and correct, he was adorably impressed by all Mickey’s rude words He is funny, he has a lovely light singing voice and he really is the complete opposite of Mickey in everything except his taste in girls. One bit I especially liked is where he comforts Linda when she’s upset about Mickey and even though he’s an older, more confident version of Eddie, he is still a bit shy of hugging the girl he’s not so secretly in love with. It’s almost like he has some idea of what might happen but like his (real) mother, he is kind-hearted and wants to help.

Linda was played by Louise Clayton. I have seen her as Linda before and she’s probably my favourite so I was excited about seeing her again, partly because she’s really good but also because I wanted to see if her performance had changed at all. I think maybe she wasn’t completely on top form but it was still a great performance and it hasn’t really changed. She still looks the same too. She’s funny and feisty throughout and also and annoying but utterly charming seven year old and a flirtatious and sexy teenager. Like Karl, she switches seamlessly into the more emotional, worried, scared, overworked Linda at the end. Louise has a lovely singing voice too and I could hear her fairly well in Tell Me It’s Not True.

Michael Southern looked quite old to be Sammy but he still did well as the child and his performances later on, as Sammy turns to crime, were really good. He was nasty and violent but somehow I couldn’t quite dislike him. His sister Donna Marie was played by Rebekah Clifford, who also played Miss Jones and various other small roles. Rebekah seems to be a great performer and she has an impressive biography for someone making their West End debut.

Christopher Dickins did well as Mr Lyons, for the first time I really saw signs of love between him and his wife although understandably he got annoyed with her sometimes. He was also funny as both milkmen. Alex Harland (I’ve seen him before too and he’s on two of my recordings) did well as the Bus Conductor and the Postman and various other roles and Steve Hansell was amusing as the Policeman/Teacher. Simon Turner was the goody-goody Perkins. He can’t laugh quite like David Bingham who used to play the role but I don’t think anyone can and he was very geeky. Simon played lots of other roles too – he mostly played nice characters but they were all different. Kate Sharp completed the cast as Linda’s friend Brenda.

So I’ve seen it again and I wasn’t disappointed and I’d love to see it again. But maybe not until next year.