Blood Brothers

Synopsis

Musical melodrama set in Liverpool about twins separated at birth and the effects on their personalities as they grow up of 'nature' and 'nurture'. A poor family, already with kids, is blessed with twins, but they can't cope. The mother cleans at a `posh' house where they are desparate to have kids but can't and a deal is struck which no-one must know about. Despite the efforts of the new family the boys paths cross time and time again as they grow and one becomes `bad' while the other is 'good'. Eventually they clash with tragic consequences. The musical is un-usual in having a "narrator" who helps to move the plot along.

Our Review:

Barbara Maxwell - 28 January 2013

Blood Brothers, now showing at the Theatre Royal in Bath, is superb entertainment. From the beginning it has the audience laughing at the wry comedy and quick one-liners flying around – what clever use of language by Willy Russell – but by the end you are crying. Not many shows can take you from one extreme of emotion to the other quite so seamlessly.

For those who may not know it, the show tells the story of the Johnstone twins born in Liverpool somewhere in the 1950’s. Their mother, beautifully played by Maureen Nolan, already has several children, no money and her husband has just walked out on them. She doesn’t know how she’s going to cope.

She tells all this to the lady she cleans for – Mrs Lyons, played by Paula Tappenden who lives in a big house with her husband but cannot have children although she desperately wants them. She suggests to Mrs Johnstone that when the babies are born, she takes one of them...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review