A Small Mind At The Theatre

A theatre in the east midlands, a thousand people stand applauding and cheering towards a stage where fourteen people stand. There on the stage, they bow, and bow, an inordinate number of times. They depart after a time and the lights come up over the capacity audience. So did you hear the story of the Blood Brothers show, how people flocked and came to see them play? Did you never hear about how we came to be, standing applauding the brightly lit stage this November day? Come judge for yourselves how this night did come to be. Blood Brothers was a significant show for me back in 2014, being the first musical that I saw live. Hiding up in the upper circle of the Derngate back then, not really sure what to expect, it was it turned out perhaps the perfect show to graduate me from play to musical that I could choose as Willy Russell's gritty and solid story is as confident as a straight play that perhaps any musical is. So strong is the story of the Johnstone's twins, tha...

As we settled in the theatre ahead of the performance of this touring version of the, up to then unfamiliar to me, Shirley Valentine, I could not have realised that a slight inner-Valentine part of me, old before my time, had emerged. Making note of the far too loud pre-show music in the theatre was a typical old person thing to comment on, which verbally I tried to discuss over the aforesaid loud music with my company for the evening. I feel it's a far point though, as this eighties written piece from Willy Russell was clearly mostly catering for a certain age group and therefore I suspect comment and thought of this music might not have just lain within my thoughts. Fortunately, however, this minor issue was to be the lowest point of this highly entertaining evening and revival of Russell's well-regarded classic. Shirley is a tired and ill-appreciated housewife, preparing dinner for her working husband as she relays the conversation with both us and "wall" of...

Willy Russell's Blood Brothers was the very first musical that I saw live and to see the show minus this music seemed an impossible thought. This was despite the fact that Russell's story of two twins separated at birth is even minus that music a tremendous roller coaster of emotion. I have to admit that for sometime during the early part of the play I was frankly missing the music, even though the integral Marilyn Monroe song is present at the start of both acts. However mostly due to the strength of many of the performances in this production, I was finally able to get into the happy/sad story once again. At its centre is the turmoil of the life of Mrs Johnstone (a quite brilliant Katie Bunting), dispenser of seemingly endless babies which comes to a head with the news that one is to become two new babes to feed and the eventual events that leave one of them in the hands of Mrs Lyons (Barbara Jackson). Blood Brothers is a challenging time travelling story progressing t...