Blood Brothers At Mayflower Theatre, Southampton Review

Reviewed by Rachel Davis

Blood Brothers is one of the most successful and popular musicals of the last few decades and continues to keep the audience captivated night after night.

Set in Liverpool in the 60’s, the show revolves around 2 brothers, “Mickey” and “Eddie, who are twin brothers separated at birth.  Mickey is to remain with their mother Mrs Johnstone, who cannot afford to keep both babies after having numerous children previously without her husband who walked away. Eddie is to live with Mrs Lyons, a lady unable to have children of her own but whom lives in much more affluent circumstances. Throughout the show you learn of the stark contrast in living conditions between both families and the effect that has on each of the brothers. Despite the differences in their circumstances fate brings them together. We follow them from their first meeting as excitable little children aged 7 until early adulthood when they turn 18 where the love of two friends and twin brothers is destroyed forever.

We are quickly introduced to Mrs Johnstone, played by the amazing Lyn Paul. Lyn made her musical debut as Mrs Johnstone in 1997 in the West End production of the show and has returned to play the part regularly over the past 20 years. She has been voted the definitive Mrs Johnstone and after the performance given today it is easy to see why. The first note was delivered, and we just knew as an audience we were to expect something magical. Her performance was outstanding. Powerful, emotional and high energy from start to finish. The emotion portrayed in that role was simply perfection. I couldn’t help but feel for her. Torn between wanting the very best for her many children but simply not having the opportunities to provide for them.  I felt every moment of anguish as she was forced to give her child away to Mrs Lyons, played by Paula Tappenden. Paula, like Lyn, has returned to play this role many times over the years and that shows throughout her performance. She takes us on an emotional rollercoaster; at the beginning we felt the pain she struggles with at not being able to have children of her own, right through to an act of betrayal at the end which ultimately leads to the final tragedy of the show. She plays the part of Eddie’s rich adopted mother perfectly.

A great deal of the show revolves around the Johnstone children and children of the estate they live on. They made us laugh and cry and the casts ability to portray the children is superb. Daniel Taylor as Sammy provides many of the laughs for the play and you can’t keep your eyes off him when he takes to the stage. I felt I was realty rooting for them. Vocal performances from the cast playing the children were again superb.

Alexander Patmore plays Mickey Johnstone with Joel Benedict playing the role of the rich, adopted brother Eddie.  The chemistry between the two actors was great,  they played their roles with passion and the vocals were pitch perfect. To quote Eddie, “simply fantastic”. The performance of the English schoolboy by Joel was hilarious and I found myself really rooting for Mickey as Alexander played him as an energetic 7 year old (almost 8!) and also as he started on his journey to adulthood. They kept the audience engaged with high energy performances and lots of laughs! To be able to portray the brothers at the difference stages in their lives is not an easy task but they both achieved this with ease. As Mickey falls victim to his circumstances, my heart broke for him, showing what an outstanding job Alexander had done at drawing us in.

Robbie Scotcher plays the role of the Narrator. Throughout the show he reminds us of the fate of the brothers that is to come. He plays the role cleverly, fading in to the background and using only powerful, note perfect vocals to get his story across.  He is unfailing in his mission to let us, the audience, know exactly what the reason was for the tragedy that is to come. With strong vocals and acting performance I loved him in this role. He took nothing away from the rest of the cast but added to the strong performances.

The rest of the cast were also strong. Vocals were top class and strong. We laughed and cried our way through the whole show. It’s is usual when watching musicals to witness both strong and weaker vocals during the show. I can honestly say that there were no weak links. Every single cast member played their role with strength and the vocal performances were first class, even during the high energy songs in the show.

The final scene of the show drew out an emotion in me that I have never experienced in a theatre before. I found myself sobbing uncontrollably whilst watching Lyn Paul crying over the death of her two sons, totally in the moment with her. The pain on her face hit me as a mother myself. The final song “Tell me it’s not true” had the audience in tears as we were so engaged with her performance. This was HER role. I find it hard to imagine anyone else playing it.

This is an amazing show, one I urge others to go and see. At the end of the show the audience were on their feet, a standing ovation with most of the audience in in tears, and the cheers were deafening. The tears flowing down my cheeks were not just tears of sadness following the tragedy that had just played out before my eyes but they were also tears of pure joy and happiness. The thrill of being able to sit and be entertained in a packed out theatre (only a handful of empty seats in the whole building) was obvious to both audience members and cast alike. We have been starved of entertainment on this scale for 2 years but one thing I can say now with absolute certainty now….theatre is back with a bang!  

Blood Brothers is showing at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton between Tuesday 7^th  to Saturday 11^th September 2021.

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £24.50.

For more information or to book tickets please visit Mayflower Theatre | Southampton | Blood Brothers or telephone the box office on 02380 711811.

Mayflower Theatre, Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1GE.