Blood Brothers
11 September 2007 09:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
argurotoxosLast night, our Swansea London group went to see the musical Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre, which was a smaller building than I was expecting, but lovingly decorated.
I knew very little about the musical going in, only that it was about a set of twins who were separated at birth and later met again after being raised in completely different environments, which is actually a fairly accurate summary. The mother of the twins already has seven children when she becomes pregnant with them and can barely support herself as it is, so she reluctantly agrees to give one of the twins to the wealthy middle-aged woman she works for, who has never been able to have a child of her own. Despite the attempts of both women to keep the twins apart and a promise to never reveal the truth to them, they meet each other while playing around the neighbourhood at the age of seven and quickly become best friends.
Despite the silliness and lightheartedness of most of the first act, Blood Brothers doesn't try to hide it's tragic nature. Indeed, the first scene of the musical even shows the audience the ending - the death of both twins - with the rest of the story a flashback to describe how events build up to that point. And if that isn't enough, there's the character whom I called 'doom guy' -- a man dressed in a suit who lurks on the edge of the set and occasionally sings about doom and destruction and how everything is going to fall apart. I found him quite hilarious and overdramatic.
The second act starts out on an optimistic note, but quickly degrades into the foretold doom and destruction. One of the twins is sentenced to seven years in jail after assisting in a burglary/murder to earn a little money in desperate times and become a drug addict; the other goes away to university and lives the life of an upper-class gentleman [rather like Clive from Maurice]. There's also a love triangle between the two twins and one of their female childhood friends. Fortunately, there aren't any major, overdone love songs, which is one of the things I can't stand in musicals.
I was disappointed by the end of the musical, not because it was angsty and depressing since it was obvious from the beginning, but because it felt rushed; the twins had practically no reaction time after their birth mother finally revealed the truth to them before they were killed. While this is most likely meant to be part of the tragedy, it still seems to me like a cheap way out.
The actress who played the twin's birth mother was very good, but she was the only one that I was markedly impressed by. The twins were played by the same actors throughout the entire play, which means that they were playing seven-year-olds through twenty-some-year-olds in the course of two acts. While I think the actors did a good job as teenagers through adulthood, trying to portray realistic seven-year-olds was pushing it. Perhaps I just don't remember being seven myself well enough, but I don't recall everyone that age being hyperactive and almost constantly enthusiastic.
Overall, my reaction to the musical was neutral; something that I'm not disappointed to have see, but that I wouldn't see again.
On the way back to the flats, I began thinking about the other musicals I've seen and I realized that in all but a few cases, I watch them for specific songs and characters and not the entire show. For example, with The Phantom of the Opera, it's Erik/The Phantom, 'The Music of the Night', and 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Similarly, Les Misérables is Javert, Enjolras, Fantine, Gavroche, 'Stars', 'Javert's Suicide', 'Do You Hear The People Sing', 'I Dreamed A Dream', and all the other Javert songs. On the other hand, musicals where I do watch for the entire show include 1776 and the Hunter x Hunter musicals.
I knew very little about the musical going in, only that it was about a set of twins who were separated at birth and later met again after being raised in completely different environments, which is actually a fairly accurate summary. The mother of the twins already has seven children when she becomes pregnant with them and can barely support herself as it is, so she reluctantly agrees to give one of the twins to the wealthy middle-aged woman she works for, who has never been able to have a child of her own. Despite the attempts of both women to keep the twins apart and a promise to never reveal the truth to them, they meet each other while playing around the neighbourhood at the age of seven and quickly become best friends.
Despite the silliness and lightheartedness of most of the first act, Blood Brothers doesn't try to hide it's tragic nature. Indeed, the first scene of the musical even shows the audience the ending - the death of both twins - with the rest of the story a flashback to describe how events build up to that point. And if that isn't enough, there's the character whom I called 'doom guy' -- a man dressed in a suit who lurks on the edge of the set and occasionally sings about doom and destruction and how everything is going to fall apart. I found him quite hilarious and overdramatic.
The second act starts out on an optimistic note, but quickly degrades into the foretold doom and destruction. One of the twins is sentenced to seven years in jail after assisting in a burglary/murder to earn a little money in desperate times and become a drug addict; the other goes away to university and lives the life of an upper-class gentleman [rather like Clive from Maurice]. There's also a love triangle between the two twins and one of their female childhood friends. Fortunately, there aren't any major, overdone love songs, which is one of the things I can't stand in musicals.
I was disappointed by the end of the musical, not because it was angsty and depressing since it was obvious from the beginning, but because it felt rushed; the twins had practically no reaction time after their birth mother finally revealed the truth to them before they were killed. While this is most likely meant to be part of the tragedy, it still seems to me like a cheap way out.
The actress who played the twin's birth mother was very good, but she was the only one that I was markedly impressed by. The twins were played by the same actors throughout the entire play, which means that they were playing seven-year-olds through twenty-some-year-olds in the course of two acts. While I think the actors did a good job as teenagers through adulthood, trying to portray realistic seven-year-olds was pushing it. Perhaps I just don't remember being seven myself well enough, but I don't recall everyone that age being hyperactive and almost constantly enthusiastic.
Overall, my reaction to the musical was neutral; something that I'm not disappointed to have see, but that I wouldn't see again.
On the way back to the flats, I began thinking about the other musicals I've seen and I realized that in all but a few cases, I watch them for specific songs and characters and not the entire show. For example, with The Phantom of the Opera, it's Erik/The Phantom, 'The Music of the Night', and 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Similarly, Les Misérables is Javert, Enjolras, Fantine, Gavroche, 'Stars', 'Javert's Suicide', 'Do You Hear The People Sing', 'I Dreamed A Dream', and all the other Javert songs. On the other hand, musicals where I do watch for the entire show include 1776 and the Hunter x Hunter musicals.
