Let me start by saying that don’t let the title fool you, this play is very much about women… But I’ll get to that in a bit.
For the first time, Oxford Playhouse is presenting the hugely popular and celebrated musical Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. They say, “with a fantastic score including Bright New Day, Marilyn Monroe, and the emotionally charged hit Tell Me It’s Not True, this fantastic musical is set to entertain and delight audiences.”
Blood Brothers was written by Willy Russell, born in Whiston near Liverpool, in 1947. Russell first made his name in the mid-70s with a musical about the Beatles, before going on to create the infamous Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. Both major international hits that also went on to become successful feature films, Russell cemented himself as a musical maestro by the late 80s.
Often nicknamed a “Liverpudlian folk opera”, Blood Brothers is a story about twin brothers who are separated at birth but meet again when they’re seven years old (nearly eight!). The show won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1983, and its 1987 revival saw over 10,000 consecutive performances during its 24-year West End run. So, safe to say, I was in the hands of a very good musical.
As a native Londoner, and a massive fan of musicals, I have to admit that Blood Brothers was never on my top shows to see, and so I never did. Now, with a chance to see it in my second home, I jumped at it. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about!
**Caution: spoilers below!**
From the very start of the show, we already know that the story ends sadly with the death of the twin brothers. It’s a sombre way to launch the production, but nevertheless, I was intrigued.
I felt the first half of the musical dragged on a bit, the focus was around the “deal” that Mrs Johnstone makes with the lady she cleans for, Mrs Lyons. TL;DR: Johnstone is pregnant with her 7th and 8th children, and Lyons has not been able to have a baby. Johnstone is concerned when she finds out that she’s having twins, that she won’t be able to cope - she’s a single parent after all - and worries that her children will be taken away from her. Lyons comes up with a perfect solution. “Give one of them to me”, she says, almost devilish. Johnstone can continue to see the baby as she cleans at work, and Lyons will raise the child as her own.
Things go from bad to worse pretty fast. The baby is selected from the pram at random, Lyons soon fires Johnstone because she fusses too much when she should be working, and the mothers try to keep the boys apart when on one fateful day they cross paths.
There’s something about the music that just didn’t click with me, it was not the talent on stage - their voices are powerful and note-perfect - and the score itself was nothing offensive to my ears. But.. it was still missing something. In the interval, I racked my brain trying to think about what it was that wasn’t sticking, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
The second half began and the recurring song "Marilyn Monroe" was back; she’s a running theme in the production given that Mickey (the twin that is kept by Johnstone) ends up living a life just like the eponymous figure; drugs, jail, death…
Where the first half dragged on, albeit with a few laughs and some brilliant comic timing from actors Joe Sleight (Eddie, the “posh” twin) and Josh Capper (Mickey, the “poor” twin), the second half had my heart racing.
We skipped fast from sweet-sixteen to adulthood, and all the drama that comes with it; first love, hating school, getting a job, losing a job, going to university, it was all there. The narrator, played by Danny Whitehead, was always lurking on stage, reminding us that something bad was coming. The lyrics repeating in my head even now; “the devils got your number, you know he's gonna find ya, you know he's right behind ya, he's standin' on your step and he's knocking at your door…”
Blood Brothers has a bit of everything musically and dramatically, and I think that’s the downfall. There’s rock, there’s pop, there’s superstition, suspense, death, comedy, it’s a lot! The final scene and number had everyone gasping, whimpering and some were full on crying. It’s impactful to say the least, especially when Mickey says “why didn’t you give me away?”.
The reason I started my review by disclosing that this musical is about women, is because by the end of the show, we’re watching three mothers on stage devastated by the loss of Mickey and Eddie. Mrs Johnstone had a chance to tell them that they’re twins, separated at birth. Mrs Lyons showed up to see the mess she’d created. Linda ran in to see the loves of her life slain on the floor.
Ultimately, Blood Brothers is a story about class, and decisions people have to make in the face of desperation - a very apt production for the times we’re living in today. Mrs Johnstone was left high and dry by her husband, to raise 6 children while pregnant with the next. She didn’t sell Eddie, but was offered a way out to protect the other children she loved so dearly. The rich Mrs Lyons up the posh end of the street, did everything right by Eddie; raised him, cared for him, loved him, but could never let go of her fears of him “mixing with the wrong people”.
Two boys, raised in the same town with loving mothers, but with incredibly different outlooks in life, end up the same. As the narrator sings, born and died on the same day, a fate bestowed upon them from the very beginning.
Blood Brothers runs at Oxford Playhouse until Saturday 16 September, and continues its UK tour through to 2024.