.Niki Colwell Evans in Blood Brothers at Curve Leicester and Touring. Picture: Jack Merriman
Blood Brothers was reviewed at Leicester Curve. The tour continues until 7 December 2024.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Enduring classic Blood Brothers turned 40 last year, although it started life as a play for schools before developing into something far richer and more powerful. Written by Willy Russell, the classic “nature versus nurture” debate is explored in an emotive and heartbreaking story of the separation of fraternal twins, alongside class divide and depression. Told with a delicate balance of light and shade, the musical has seen incredible success in its four-decade history and has an army of loyal fans. Having played more than 10,000 performances in a near 25-year West End run, the show is enjoying the second half of a UK tour that began in 2022.
The musical sees struggling mum-of-seven Mrs Johnstone (Niki Colwell Evans) pregnant once more, this time with twins. Knowing she’s unable to afford to keep both babies, she reluctantly agrees to sell one of the brothers to her employer Mrs Lyons (Sarah Jane Buckley), easing her financial burden while offering the Lyons the child they can’t have naturally. The show’s Narrator (Scott Anson) warns of the old superstition that separated twins who learn they’re part of a pair are doomed to tragedy, so the mothers agree to keep the children apart and never speak of the other’s existence. A chance meeting seven years later sees young Mickey (Sean Jones) and Eddie (Joe Sleight) forming a firm friendship, much to the panic of both mothers, which only grows as the boys grow into young men and follow very different paths as an ominous foreboding looms overhead.
Blood Brothers plays in exactly the same way as it always has, and although there’s a current trend for reworking and reimagining musicals for a modern audience, this show feels like a moment captured in time, and this production (originally directed by Bob Thomson and Bill Kenwright) delivers it faithfully and with all of its inherent power. When shows reach a certain age, they tend to be referred to as either “timeless” or “stale”, and Blood Brothers manages to invoke the former response, largely due to the strength of its story, flawed but real characters, and the haunting grip that it holds over its audience as the tragic events play out. It may well feel dated to the new generation raised on Hamilton and Six (not helped by a distinctly 1980s score full of synthesisers and EastEnders-style “duff duff” beats), but it casts a potent spell and slowly tightens its grasp so that the masterful final scene still hits as hard as it ever did.
It is an unashamedly long show (just shy of three hours with interval), and it takes its time with some book-heavy stretches that could stand a bit of editing, but the show works because the more invested you are in the Johnstone twins, the more that finale breaks your heart. Russell once famously said that while he may not have written the best musical, he might’ve written the best last five minutes, and the more times you see this show, the more that statement might be true. Brilliantly written, timed and performed, with some clever cast placement that puts the audience at the heart of the tension, it sears itself into the memory. Being immediately followed by the stirring ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ which appeared to leave the cast in tears on press night, it is undoubtedly one of the finest scenes in musical theatre.
Niki Colwell Evans is simply sublime as Mrs Johnstone. Having played the role for some time now, she wears it like a second skin and fully encapsulates Johnstone’s earthy grit, excelling as the mother trying to do what’s best for her children. It’s a rounded, believable and touching portrayal, accompanied by some incredible vocals, and she shines on the stage. Joe Sleight is also excellent as twin Eddie, skilfully playing the endearingly innocent “prim and proper” routine, contrasting brilliantly with Sean Jones’ more boisterous Mickey and bringing both a charming innocence and subsequently a likeable maturity to the role.
Jones is Blood Brothers royalty, having played Mickey on and off for two decades, and his casting is both a blessing and a curse. He’s undeniably brilliant, delivering a layered journey from cheeky seven-year-old to broken adult while showing no sign of autopilot or fatigue despite having played it countless times before. But his casting now looks bizarre and removes all believability from what’s going on. He’s older than Evans, playing his mother, and a good 20 years older than Sleight playing his twin brother, and while audiences can suspend their disbelief to an extent, it may be time for Jones to go out on a high and for the next generation to take over. Gemma Brodrick also shows great range as Linda, delivering the journey from naive child to broken wife and portraying genuine devastation by the conclusion. As the Narrator, Scott Anson doesn’t convince, lacking the constant ominous threatening presence that the role really requires, and also vocally underperforming, with the bigger notes feeling slightly out of his natural reach.
While the jury is still out on whether it’s time for Blood Brothers to be reimagined or reworked to update it for modern audiences, there’s no denying its emotional grip, and the show still has an almost tangible power to bring tears to the eyes and audience members to their feet. Performed with pure conviction by a talented cast, the musical remains its true authentic self and essential viewing for anyone who has yet to experience it, and a rewarding night out for those returning to it again and again.
Rob Bartley
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