We finally took your picture down off the wall, ah Jesse how do you always seem to know just when to...
We finally took your picture down off the wall, ah Jesse how do you always seem to know just when to call
Member since:18.10.2005
Reviews:48
Members who trust:18
...you can get off of the ground again, it doesn't matter the whole things just a game!
Blood Brothers is a tale of two liverpudlian twins seperated at birth yet their lives become intertwined, ending in inevitable tradgedy. It was Willy Russell's very first musical having previously only written plays. It opened at the Phoenix Theatre in London in 1991 and has been playing there ever since.
I have always been a fan of musicals and from a young age accompanied my mum on group trips organised by a friend. As a resutl I have seen many of the delights the West End has to offer. having sampled a vast selection I can quite comfortably say this was my all time favourite and I have been back to see it a couple of times dragging many a family member (who I may add all throughly enjoyed it). The story line is simple yet enthralling, the characters endear me, the songs stick in my head and the ending never fails to bring tears to my eyes!
Plot:
Before I give you the summary I would just like to point out that by telling you the ending I am not giving anything away, as the beginning scene is exactly the same as the ending scene so you aldready know what is going to happen from the start.
The musical opens with the haunting song Tell me it's not True sung by a woman standing on the stage in between two dead bodies and
introduces the prophecy that if two twins seperated at birth ever find out that they are related they will die.
The first half of the play is very upbeat and fun, and you can quite easily forget the ending you know is coming. It starts with a pregnant woman who discovers that she is having twins but only has enough money to raise one. She makes the heartbreaking decision to give one of them to her childless employer on the condition that no-one must ever know. The Twins are born and seperated, with her employer choosing one and naming it Eddie and the mother Mrs Johnston keeping Mickey.
The two boys grow up on opposite ends of the park, which may as well have been different worlds. Mickey lives in a council house with a family scraping by on "the never never" and Eddie grows up in the affluent part of town surrounded by comfort and security. As young boys they meet and upon discovering they have the same birthday become blood brothers. From this point onwards their lives become intertwined with both seeing their ideal in the other. Eddie sees Mickey's freedom and Mickey, Eddie's wealth and opportunities.
In the second half of the play the tone is far more sombre with Willy Russell introducing his political view on the depression and class systems in the 1980s. We see Mickey pulled into a life of dole queues and petty crime while Eddie continues to prosper. Add to the mix a woman in love with both of them and the two blood brothers begin to fall apart leading us right back to where we started in the opening scene, prepare to be surprised even though you know that this is going to happen.
Set and Music:
The set is very simplistic and leaves a lot to the imagination however I think this lends to the overall feel of the play which is very much centred around a child's imagination, especially in the first half. Navigating from scene to scene is a narrator who serves not only to further illustrate the scene in front of us but to remind us, when things seem to be going well, that life will not always be this way.
The music composed by Jason Howland is outstanding in both it's simplicity and story telling. It's been many years since I have seen this play yet writing this review I am finding myself humming along to the songs that I mention. My personal favourites are "Tell me it's not True", the song depicting a mothers heartache on finding her sons dead, "Easy Terms" which tells of the difficulty of living on the HP and "Kids Game" a fun song about the innocence of youth which contains the lines I have opened my review with, this song is especially poignant with regards to the ending. In my mind there is not a bad song in the musical, the ones mentioned above are merely the ones that I can remember lyrics to as well as tunes!
Overall:
The musical had me enchanted from the beginning, the characters are very easy to relate to as well as the idea that doing what you think is best at the time may not work out in the end. I found myself rooting for both boys to survive everything that life was throwing at them and even the second and third time I had seen it hoping that the outcome would be different. Be prepared for your emotions to shift with the tones of the play, to find yourself laughing and smiling, before the tears begin to well...
Tickets for the show cost anywhere between £17 and £45 this will depend on both which night you go and where you sit in the auditorium. My favourite seats are in the dress circle which are not the cheapest but also not the most expensive seats, I believe they cost about £25, but the view is better than the stalls as the seating is tiered.
For those looking to see this on budget the best time would be a matinee as these tend to be cheaper. Also ask for group discounts if there are a group of people going. Tickets can be booked online, at various ticket vendors around London (these tend to be tiny little shops covered in posters of musicals, plays and events there are a few around Picadilly and LeicesterSquare) and also at the theatre itself. I'm not sure whether or not buying online or at the ticket vendors means the tickets are any cheaper, so again if you are going on a budget it may be worth checking this out.
As with all West End plays I would recommend booking your tickets as early as you can as performances tend to sell out very quickly. If you don't manage to get tickets during the period you will be in London you can always try Lastminute.com or a similar website, or approaching the theatre on the day to see if they have had any returns. For the returns you may have to wait until up to about half an hour before the performance as mosst people will return any un-used tickets when they arrive at the Theatre to see the show.
I would definitly recommend this play to anyone of any tastes. It is considered family friendly but there are a few choice words included, however the context these are in I would not consider offensive and they are few and far between.
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Oct 26th, 2005
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