Powerful musical for our times

The Bangkok Community Theatre (BCT) will stage Blood Brothers, its major production for 2009, at Alliance Francaise, Sathon Tai Road, on November 26-29. Blood Brothers is an acclaimed West End musical which received four awards for Best Musical and six Tony nominations, and has received standing ovations in the West End for 21 years.

‘‘Can you keep a secret?’’ asks Mrs Johnstone, played by Camilla McDonald.

The musical tells a simple tale: a working-class mum with seven children in Liverpool in the 1960s. She believes she is just able to cope when she falls pregnant again, but on giving birth to twin boys she has to give one away to a childless woman for whom she works as a cleaner.

The two boys' paths cross despite their mothers trying to keep them apart and they become blood brothers. But as they grow older one becomes successful while the other spirals into a life of crime and depression before both are lying dead.

The story of Blood Brothers becomes the threat of a curse: if the twin boys, now separated, ever find out that they are brothers, they will both immediately die. It is a fabulous story about the human bonds between mothers and children, brothers and lovers, the dichotomy of rich and poor, and the fear caused by secrets.

Over the past 25 years, Blood Brothers created by Willy Russell, has attracted top-quality singers and actors to its London stage, including Mel C (formerly of the Spice Girls), who took over the lead role as Mrs Johnstone, following in the footsteps of such stars as Helen Reddy, Petula Clark, Barbara Dickson, Linda Nolan and Carole King. David and Sean Cassidy played the twin brothers in the US production and Russell Crowe launched his career in Australia playing one of the twins.

‘‘Will you be my Blood Brother?’’— Edward and Mickey make a pact.

After his success with Educating Rita, Willy Russell wrote a play for a youth theatre company that visited schools in the Liverpool area, with five actors and minimal props. This was the original version of Blood Brothers and it had only one song in it; but the day it opened, Russell started to work on the full-length piece that would eventually sweep the world.

Willy Russell's down to earth characters are immediately likeable from the moment the pregnant mother opens with her hard luck tale, to watching the twins grow up, swapping sweets for porn magazines and falling in love with the same girl, to the tragic climax of the play.

More than just another musical, Blood Brothers is a social commentary that remains timeless, receiving rave reviews even from people who don't typically like musicals.

This Bangkok Community Theatre production of Blood Brothers is directed by Marion McDonald with musical direction by postgraduate opera student and local singing teacher Eugene Eustaquio. Camilla McDonald, a graduate in theatre from Mountview London and a West End performer, plays the leading role.

"No other musical has ever moved me so deeply just in rehearsals," says Camilla.

"I've been close to tears re-enacting the finale where I lay over my sons trying to sing 'Tell Me It's Not True' feeling what any mother would for their tragic loss."

Blood Brothers will be performed in English at Alliance Francaise, Sathon Tai Road, nightly from November 26-29. Tickets at 850 baht are available from Total Reservations (tel 02-833-555, http://www.totalreservations.com). For more information, visit the BCT website at http://www.bct-th.org.