Blood Brothers Bristol Hippodrome Review
There was a single parent with feral children living on a crime ridden council estate, the jobless languishing on the dole, a baby taken at birth, addiction to prescription drugs and the final death of two siblings in a shooting. No, this wasn’t an episode of Jeremy Kyle, but Willy Russell’s thirty year old musical Blood Brothers.
The ultimate success of this long-running musical, comes in the heart of its story. It’s a damn good one, well written, with the perfect balance between gritty drama and humour. Add to this some cracking tunes, brilliant performances and the fact that the musical has not been tampered with or updated. There is simply no need.
Maureen Nolan injects dripping emotion in her performance as Mrs Johnstone, the mother stuck with the fall out of making the mistake of giving one of her twin babies away.
What follows, is the highly plausible tale of the twin boys growing up with contrasting class backgrounds, but whose lives become inextricably entwined.
With a cast of Blood Brother pros, Sean Jones gives a searingly brilliant performance as Mickey, switching with ease from seven year old feral child, to awkward adolescens finishing with an utterly convincing turn as a tranquilliser addled addict.
Daniel Taylor is also perfect as Sammy, the eldest sibling with some serious ishoos.
At times, the sound production was a little muddled, but nothing to detract from the overall performance which is an absolute cracker.
10/10
Blood Brothers is running at The Bristol Hippodrome until Saturday 19 April 2014