I'm not a musical fanatic - but Blood Brothers at Birmingham's Hippodrome left me enthralled

I’ve never been a fanatic when it comes to musicals, however Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers enthralled me with it’s casts spectacular performance. The exploration of hard hitting topics relating to class and hardship, all whilst maintaining an endearing humour throughout is certainly something to be merited.

Blood Brothers, a tale of two twins separated at birth, discusses life in Liverpool from the late 1950s through to the early 1980s with writer Willy Russell taking inspiration from his own upbringing.

The cast maintained a high energy performance during the entire two and a half hours, at Birmingham Hippodrome, with gasps and laughter in all the right places from the audience during both acts.

My favourite song was ‘The Devil's Got Your Number’ sung by Narrator, Richard Munday, with his chilling stage presence and relentless looming over the brothers which offered a dark reminder to the audience that Mickey and Eddies fates are sealed.

Another impressive song in the modern Greek tragedy was ‘Tell me it’s not true’ which offered both a climactic and devastating full-cast close to the show which left myself and the audience in silence with it’s impact.

Although the entire cast were exceptional I simply have to mention the performance of Sean Jones, who has played Mickey for more than 20 years, and Joe Sleight, who played Eddie and is known for his role in Wicked on the West End . The ability of both actors to convincingly play 7 year old children through to adulthood and completely change the tone of the play during the second half is more than note worthy.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the motif around superstition that reoccurs throughout the play allowing the audience to question if the fate of the brothers is due to class or a self fulfilling prophecy brought on by superstition.

The performance of Tricia Adele Turner engrossed me with her ability to capture Ms Lyon’s decent into madness, her fragility and the emotion she carried during her singing. She is certainly a standout amongst the female members of the cast.

It’s impossible to not give the performance a standing ovation, which the audience at the Birmingham Hippodrome certainly did.

Blood Brothers is featuring at Birmingham Hippodrome from October 22 to October 24 with limited availability and tickets starting at £48.

For more information visit: https://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/blood-brothers-five/