Niki Evans and Sean Jones in Blood Brothers at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London and Touring. Picture: Jack Merriman
Blood Brothers continues at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 12 February 2022 and on UK tour until 22 October 2022.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
What’s new to be said about the musical theatre institution they call Blood Brothers? Not much. It’s been performed more than 10,000 times in the West End alone, played to packed houses and standing ovations for almost 40 years around the world and I’ve been in love with Willy Russell’s funny-but-tragic masterpiece for half a lifetime.
Having grown up just across the the Mersey around the time this slice of Liverpool family life with its themes of class division, job insecurity, poverty, sibling rivalry and love is set, it’s easy to understand why it resonates so much. I still bear the scar from falling out of my pram by Lime Street Station. My old mum used to say that’s what made me so peculiar.
Even though I know full well what’s going to happen, the gunshot climax still sends shock waves down the spine and there’s no musical I’d rather revisit. So if you’re looking for an unbiased review, you’ve gone to the wrong website. I saw it for the first time at its London premiere in 1983 and did not need to be asked twice to view it for a fourteenth re-viewing at Wimbledon where it is in the second week of yet another national tour, this one a 15-venue marathon which ends at Salford in October.
Why did I go in the first place? As a great fan of Scottish folk singer Barbara Dickson, I was curious as to how she would fare in her new career as an actress, reluctant though she was to take up author Willy Russell’s invitation to be his first Mrs Johnstone.
Dickson’s rendition of the show’s most haunting number ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ still stands out as the most memorable. First impressions often are. That original show, although running for only six months at the Lyric, won an Olivier for Best Musical.
While her acting might not have matched her singing, Dickson’s sincerity got her through. And the sincerity in the rich, emotion-packed voice of Niki Evans at Wimbledon, the eleventh Mrs Johnstone I’ve seen, is palpable. It was a lovely performance that put this one-time X Factor finalist (well, you have to start somewhere) right up there with the best.
Her ‘Easy Terms’ when she overstretches life on the never-never to bailiff-stripping point (they even take away the teddy bear) is heart-wrenching and her ‘Bright New Day’ when the council rehouses her family to cleaner country air brings down the curtain on Act I on an upswing is joyous.
The story centres on ‘blood brothers’ Mickey and Eddie, the separated twins, growing up on different sides of the track and meeting by chance, not identical and not knowing they are siblings, best of mates as kids, deadly rivals when they grow up and fall in love with the same girl, leading to the chilling climax.
Sean Jones has been donning short trousers and baggy jumper as Mickey since the last century. He shines as brightly as ever in the key role that has defined his career (this will actually be his final tour). His timing is an object lesson and the obvious love he has for the part endearing.
Much of the secret of the show’s enduring success is the teamwork of a supporting cast who for the most part know how it works backwards from role experience.
Jones is one, Joel Benedict has done Eddie on tour from 2014-16 and Paula Tappenden has played Mrs Lyons in the musical’s West End days. Both get everything out of their roles.
Robbie Scotcher, as the menacing Narrator warning in ‘Shoes Upon the Table’ of the superstitions that surround the splitting of the twins at birth, excels in a part given to Liverpool’s world champion boxer John Conteh on the first national tour, while Carly Burns as the love-torn Linda mixes a feisty coquettishness with a childlike vulnerability and Liverpudlian Danny Taylor is suitably deranged as Mickey’s gun-mad elder brother Sammy.
And the lesser roles come vibrantly alive in the hands of Grace Galloway, Nick Wilkes (comically good as both policeman and school teacher), bus conductor Jacob Yolland, Andy Owens, Josh Capper and Melissa Potts.
Musical director Matt Malone boldly helms a six-strong band in a folksy Russell score. ‘Marilyn Monroe’, ‘I’m Not Saying a Word’, ‘Light Romance’, ‘Take a Letter Miss Jones’ when Mr Lyons (Tim Churchill) is forced to axe staff, including his stunned secretary, in a recession – there’s not a dud among them.
Proud Scouser and Everton FC chairman Bill Kenwright must love wheeling out this show as producer and co-director (with Bob Tomson). It says much that so little has been changed over the years. They clearly belong to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school as a wonderful consistency has always marked Blood Brothers. The magic of theatre… when it’s this good, you can’t beat it.
Jeremy Chapman
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