Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright’s ‘Blood Brothers’ was not a production taking any risks. The 1980s musical has been on the school curriculum for decades—I studied it for my own GCSEs—and this show was clearly anticipating the groups of school children that would make up the audience. Given the demographic in the Mayflower last night, there was bound to be more sniggering and low-level chatter than for other visiting shows, but unfortunately some staging and timing decisions made by this production left the audience laughing when we ought to have been taking in tragedy.
When our lead, Micky, enter the stage from a theatre side door followed by a police squad, walking past the audience and climbing up on to the stage, the audience chuckled. This felt like a stereotypical “how to make theatre exciting for teenagers” move, as if this decision were cutting edge. A woman sat behind me tutted. Afterwards, in a final showdown, there was such a long period of all of the characters screaming that by the time the brothers had been shot, people laughed from relief.
Delivery from Scott Anson as the Narrator was at times so slow that people shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. This indulgence wasn’t helped by a drum beat that hit each of the final three words in one of his monologues (and one of the most famous lines of the script) “a debt is a debt and it must be paid”. This over-emphasis had audience members comparing it to a pantomime in the interval.
But this production, overall, was good. It is the highest praise I can give that our starring cast of Sean Jones, Joe Sleight, and Gemma Brodrick managed to perform as children—something that usually makes me so embarrassed that I want to vacate the theatre as soon as possible—and remain genuinely likeable. The trio, plus Niki Colwell Evans as Mrs Johnstone, were wonderful and were the foundation of this production’s successes. Comedic timing from the main cast was fantastic (Jones’ physical clowning particularly stood out) and it was a pleasure to watch their performances.
The set was well done by Andy Walmsley as were the costumes by David Hoy.
It was also brilliant to see groups of teenage students genuinely laughing at the comedic moments in the musical, which made this reviewer hopeful that this largely-positive early theatre experience could foster a real love of the artform for them.
‘Blood Brothers’ was first developed by Willy Russell as a school play (and this production certainly seemed to have been developed with schools as a priority), but it would be fascinating to see someone attempt this musical in a different way.
Verity Babbs is the host of Voice FM's 'Arts & Culture Show' on Wednesdays at 2PM
www.veritybabbs.com
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