Blood Brothers Tickets:7 recommendations

The Guardian

Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers' which sails into the Lyric from the Liverpool Playhouse, is brilliant melodrama. Indeed it owes less to the modern British musical than to The Corsican Brothers or The Force Of Destiny. But it is melodrama done with such power, such intense belief in itself and, above all, such a wealth of good music, that it carries one along with it in almost unreserved enjoyment.
 
The achingly romantic songs...tell of grief and loss rather than the usual musical trivialities.

Many of these fall to Barbara Dickson as the mother, a riven figure in a headscarf rendering the lyrics with stunning clarity. But there is good work from the whole cast, including Andrew Schofield as the hawk-like chorus and George Costigan as the deprived Mickey.