Blood Brothers King's Theatre, Glasgow

Thursday 5 July 2012

THE new production of Willy Russell's Blood Brothers, which opened officially on Tuesday night, really couldn't fail with the Glasgow audience.

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Alison Kerr

Not only is this a show which clearly inspires fierce loyalty among female fans (if the inter-cubicle conversations in the ladies' toilets at the interval were anything to go by) but it had local hero Marti Pellow singing the part of the narrator, another devilish role for the former pop star who was last seen on the King's stage a year ago, in Jekyll & Hyde.

The songs in this show are functional and unremarkable (the fact that they were not followed by applause on Tuesday underlined that); undoubtedly the main reason for its long-standing appeal – especially to women – is the strong central character, Mrs Johnstone, who is being played in Glasgow by Maureen Nolan (of The Nolans fame). The plot revolves around twin boys who are separated at birth and then grow up on opposite sides of the class divide in Liverpool, only to keep finding each other – and eventually cause each other's demise. As the struggling single mother who is co-erced into giving away one of her newborn twins to the middle-class woman for whom she cleans, Nolan gave a faultless performance full of grit, feistiness, resignation and passion. It was little wonder that at the end of the show, having just sung Tell Me It's Not True over the pair of dead bodies, Nolan looked absolutely drained. The sombre mood didn't lift until the cast members took their third bows. The other noteworthy performance was by Sean Jones, who played the twin she kept. Playing the exuberant, seven (sorry, "nearly eight") year old Mickey, he was very funny and energetic, which made his performance as the shell-of-a-man Mickey became especially affecting. HHH

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Blood Brothers King's Theatre, Glasgow

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