Review: Rich scenes and real emotion in Blood Brothers at Coventry’s Belgrade

Like the true classic it is, Blood Brothers never fails. Every time I see this show, new things appear and appeal. There is too much for one sitting – it needs more – indeed deserves more.

Maureen Nolan as Mrs Johnstone brings more than a powerful voice and acute actor’s sense to the role and there’s also a real emotive connection to the characters around her.

Our story concerns a pair of twins separated at birth where one lives a privileged life with a childless couple (Tracy Spencer and Tim Churchill) in the ‘big house’ on the hill with private schooling and Oxbridge to look forward to while the other is brought up in a tiny, overcrowded house and single-parent poverty in the slums of Liverpool. Willy Russell’s twin obsessions with class and social mobility inspire the piece and his ‘twin experiment’ into nature versus nature produces a really enjoyable ‘musical’, where these huge themes are played out - mixed with generous dollops of laughter. The richest section is easily the ‘children’ playing in the street. It’s wonderful stuff.

Mickey Johnstone (Sean Jones) is charismatic and watchable and as he ages and his relationships with Linda (Danielle Corlas) and his twin brother Eddie (Mark Hutchinson) develop, the mood darkens and narrator Krisopher Harding’s prognostications become reality as the story heads remorselessly towards its grisly end.

If you’ve never seen Blood Brothers, it’s definitely time – though, a word to wise women, don’t wear mascara - it just doesn’t last.

Jane Howard