Blood Brothers: Event Preview

When audiences return to see a show season after season you know you've got a keeper. At over 25 years old, Blood Brothers is a fully fledged West End success and its combination of strong story, social commentary and standout numbers, rather than its spectacle, has ensured this success has continued. Blood Brothers tells the story of fraternal twins separated at birth.

While it begins with a pact between the pregnant mother Mrs Johnstone and the childless Mrs Lyons she cleans for, their different backgrounds, and the subsequent choices available to each of them, have just as much impact on the consequences of this tragic story as their secret itself. The songs pack a punch as they build on the story and explore the characters' emotional states. The haunting melody of Easy Terms magnifies the pain of giving up one's child. Money can't buy you love, but neither can love pay the bills, and in Mrs Johnstone's (Maureen Nolan) world of debt collectors and borrowed time, her son is bargained away. That Guy builds on the obvious connection between the two brothers Mickey and Eddie; the irony being that either of them could have been the other but for one choice.

One problematic aspect of the show is the outdated role of the narrator: he interrupts and slows the drama down rather than lets it build naturally, and his commentaries are obvious rather than subtle. The role works well for condensing Mickey and Eddie's teenage years, but stepping in to comment immediately after the play's climax means there is no emotional payoff and the showstopper Tell Me It's Not True suffers as a result. Despite this, Blood Brothers is an engaging and enjoyable production. Sean Jones (Mickey) and Simon Willmont (Eddie) have a great chemistry as the brothers. Jones is particularly good in the more challenging role of Mickey, developing from cute kid (love the horsemanship!) to depressed man, inevitably trapped by his upbringing. Blood Brothers is a musical with substance and, as such, will predictably see in another 25 years.