30/01/2024, Newcastle Theatre Royal
You know that if you cross your fingers and if you count from one to ten, Blood Brothers will tour again! Once again, the much loved GSCE drama curriculum staple is back out on another tour. With a cast of familiar faces and some new members, the show about two twins separated at birth and their opposing lives is loved by so many and has been for many years. We caught the tour relatively early on at Newcastle Theatre Royal. It’s a show we’ve seen quite a few times but can never resist coming back. Read on for our five reasons to see Blood Brothers on tour this year…
1. Niki Colwell Evans as Mrs Johnstone
In recent years, the role of Mrs Johnstone has been taken by the formidable legend of the shows history, Lynn Paul, who has played the part more times than anyone else before her recent retirement from the role. With big shoes to fill, who else but Blood Brothers West End alumni Niki Colwell Evans could follow an act like that. Evans portrays Mrs Johnstone perfectly. The character is the glue of the family and Evans is the glue of the show too. The way Evans puts every ounce of her being into the emotion of her performance from the love of every one of her seven children to the emotionally charged finale is incredible, she is breathtakingly good.
2. The acting
While it has a great catalogue of songs (trust us, you’ll be humming ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ for days after seeing this show), Blood Brothers is a show where the acting of every cast member is imperative to the success of it. The transformation of the entire cast from children through to adolescents and adults is amazing to see (Notably Sean Jones is astounding as leading man Mickey with the vast changes to the character over the two acts). There’s some extremely quick changes from one character to another from the ensemble too which is great and quite often funny to see too. This show highlights really well the incredible range of all the actors in it.
3. Tell Me It’s Not True
This song is just musical theatre all over. It’s a tune that will send shivers down your spine and will ignite even the driest tear ducts into some sort of reaction. Led by Evans beautiful and powerful voice, the casts performance of this song is well deserving of the standing ovation as it closes the show. The performance of this song is pretty much worth the ticket price alone as it just tears your heart apart after the sheer drama and emotion of the closing of act 2.
4. It holds up so well
For a show that was written over 40 years ago, the content and themes still resonate to this day. Struggles of the working class having to sacrifice so much to survive, the bonds we make as children to people who will be significant to us for the rest of our lives, and family coming first above everything. The few moments that seem outdated (ie cowboys and Indians game, a domestic violence joke) feel like they have a right to be there too as they remind us of how far we have come as a collective of theatre creators and punters.
5. It’s a show for everyone
As you sit in the auditorium for a Blood Brothers show, you can look around and spot school trips, different generations of theatre fans, parents introducing children to the show (and quite often musical theatre as a whole) and it’s just a truly humbling spectacle to be a part of an audience that is filled with stories and reasons for being there. Having said that, the themes, content and language probably mean the minimum age of the shows recommended audience is around 13 or so, but from that age upwards, everyone in there is absolutely captivated by it and will be for years to come.
With not too many bells or whistles, this simply produced show needs no more than a simple set and a fantastic cast to be absolutely magical. It often makes peoples “favourites” lists and is no exception with us. Make sure you book your tickets by clicking here!
The Stagey Couple 