Blood Brothers Tickets:7 recommendations
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Long running dramatic musical
About Blood Brothers
One of the West End’s longest running musicals, Blood Brothers has been drawing crowds since 1988. Originally written as a school play and first performed by a Liverpool comprehensive school in 1981, 1982 saw Willy Russell (who had had enormous success previously with John, Paul, George, Ringo… And Bert (1974) and Educating Rita (1980)), turn Blood Brothers into a full scale, professional musical, writing the music and lyrics himself.
Opening at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983, even the casting of Barbara Dickson as Mrs Johnstone could not draw in a large crowd. Nevertheless, Blood Brothers transferred to London where it only played for six months. The hard hitting drama of Blood Brothers, along with hits high emotion score and gritty Liverpudlian humour was seen by Bill Kenwright, who subsequently took over the production and sent it on a successful UK tour. Blood Brothers eventually settled in the West End’s Albery Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) in 1988, moving to its current home, the Phoenix Theatre, three years later.
The endurance of Blood Brothers is a testament to the powerful story of the lives of Liverpudlian twins separated at birth, its hugely popular music and the frequent cast changes that keep the production fresh. Mrs Johnstone has been played by no less than four of the Nolan sisters, with Linda Nolan in particular receiving enormous critical acclaim, and the brothers of the title having been played by Anthony Costa and Steven Houghton in London, and by real life brothers David and Shaun Cassidy on Broadway.
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Reviews
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.
