Reviewed: Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre
Published on Friday 10th June, 10.44am, Written by Jonathan Dudley
Blood Brothers is one of those long-running musicals that many consider to be little more than a tourist trap or a magnet for GCSE students. Nothing could be further from the truth; Blood Brothers is a musical which all theatre fans should make the effort to see at least once in their lives.
For anyone who has somehow navigated their way through life without learning the basic premise of Blood Brothers, here it is. An impoverished Scouse mother with far too many children gives away one of her newborn twin boys to her wealthy employer in the hope that the lad would have a better life. By only keeping one twin she can just afford to keep her family together and keep ‘the social’ from their door. The boys, ignorant to their shared parentage, become friends and eventually the whole mess comes out, with disastrous results.
First things first, Natasha Hamilton is too young to play Mrs Johnstone. If she were not a celebrity she probably would not have been cast until she’d aged a good ten years. But come on, this is theatre, if suspension of disbelief means that you can pretend Stephen Palfreman (who must be in his mid-thirties) is the nearly-8-year-old Mickey Johnstone then you can imagine a few crows’ feet on Ms Hamilton’s lovely face.
Being too young and beautiful (hardly a stinging criticism) aside, Hamilton’s performance was credible. Her vocals were powerful and she captured the essence of the struggling-but-strong Mrs Johnstone. Sadly, she was let down by the fact she has a tendency to act with her voice, not her face. Her limited facial expressions were particularly noticable when she appeared on stage with Stephen Palfreman’s Mickey or Louise Clayton’s Linda, the show’s stand-outs.
Clayton and Palfreman captured the journey from child to teen to adult wonderfully. The way they played their young selves with endearing physicality and slowly transformed into adults, becoming more world-weary with every scene, really highlighted the difference between pop stars and West End stars. However, Hamilton showed promise, her vocals were stunning and once she tightens her performance up a little, she may well become a West End regular.
Of course, there’s far more to Blood Brothers than whoever is playing Mrs J. It’s traditional Willy Russell fare: gritty, Northern and focussing on a woman on a powerful and ultimately transformative journey. Russell’s work always offers an interesting glimpse into the working classes of yesteryear and Blood Brothers does that and throws in a decent score for good measure.
If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned West End musical with a moving yet fluff-free story then Blood Brothers is for you.
Blood Brothers ticket and hotel packages are available from Show-and-Stay.co.uk from £47pp.
