‘Blood Brothers’ – Enda Markey in association with Hayes Theatre Company

BLOOD BROTHERS – BOOK, MUSIC & LYRICS BY WILLY RUSSELL DIRECTED BY ANDREW POLE – ENDA MARKEY IN ASSOCIATION WITH HAYES THEATRE CO – HAYES THEATRE 6 FEBRUARY – 15 MARCH 2015 – Photo by Kurt Sneddon

Sybil: Hayes Theatre…
Lea: Where the wine is warm as blood…
Sybil: But the blood is hot as hell…
Lea: Nailed it!
Sybil: First show at Hayes this year!
Lea: Yes! Dark. Delicious. All the pieces came together into this cool experience. So immersive. Almost filmic. Really amazing. Excellent choices. Really amazing performances.
Sybil: I need to find out what else Willy Russel has done…. I mean, I should know. Ah – yes (checking the program), he did Educating Rita. Okay, my main points: I saw this show on the West End 20 years ago. Helen Dallimore is better than Barbara Dickson who was in the lead role at the time. Better. I mean, significantly better.
Lea: Oh my gosh!
Sybil: Sensational!
Lea: What I loved too was that she allowed herself to be emotional through her voice…
Sybil: Raw…gritty.
Lea: She did whatever the role needed at the time. And I think that’s what made this role so gut wrenching… allowing imperfections for the beauty of the role.
Sybil: Totally. My main issue was the accents. Not consistent. But that’s really hard for an Australian audience, to really identify with the class thing… with my background, I found that class thing interesting. Ummm… I want to give it a 4.
Lea: Oh wow, you’re jumping straight to that?
Sybil: Well… the set. I really loved the set. It was brilliant.
Lea: Yes.
Sybil: And Phil Lowe was really amazing in lots of roles. As was Erin James. I thought she was fantastic. And you know who else was really good? Christy Sullivan. I thought she was excellent. My outstandings were Helen Dallimore, Blake Bowden was fabulous, as was Bobby Fox. Christy, Phil and Erin. So 50% of the cast was outstanding!
Lea: More than 50%! You know the only thing that I would have liked to have been done differently – and it’s kind of a stylistic, directorial issue – was the Narrator. I know he’s meant to be there, right behind you, in the subconscious.
Sybil: Did you want him louder?
Lea: No, I felt he was staged too close to them. Creating menace through proximity.
Sybil: (HUGE ASIDE) Oh! I’m getting rained on. It’s the air conditioner. No! Don’t open my umbrella!
Lea: I’m not opening it!
Sybil: We’ve just seen a whole show about superstition, let’s not open an umbrella… inside… in a theatre!
Lea: What I was trying to say was that they were using the proximity of the narrator to show menace and it didn’t work. In a small space it would have been more effective if he was further away, with his voice carrying…
Sybil: Yes. You know I actually didn’t hear him some of the time because his singing was so soft.
Lea: The diction, and the menace of it – it didn’t have to be loud – and not so close to them. It almost had to be that quantum voice. Where is it coming from? Behind the fence, through the window, under the eves, seeping through the floorboards. It was just a bit too literal. That was my only thing.
Sybil: I want to see it again.
Lea: Yeah. It would actually be one of those shows that would be great to see again.
Sybil: And can you believe only four members of the band? The band was awesome.
Lea: The music was amazing.
Sybil: The set was fantastic.
Lea: It was simple but inventive.
Sybil: And you know what? I thought the sound mix was good too.
Lea: Yeah.
Sybil: And the lighting… the tech side was just tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Lea: … and the way that you never worried about a single thing. It was fluid, seamless and just let the purity of the story just show through. It wasn’t showy… there were little moments where – like that part where she sings ‘He’s even started dancing’… and the disco music came on…
Sybil: And I loved the costume going from 50s/60s to almost 80s, just subtle and lovely.
Lea: And Mrs Johnstone aged very, very nicely.
Sybil: Guess how old the actress is.
Lea: I don’t know.
Sybil: That’s what I’m saying. Guess how old Helen Dallimore is.
Lea: Don’t know.
Sybil: 43. And I think that’s awesome because at the beginning I would have totally bought her as 19. Totally. And that is fantastic. And at the end, I totally would have bought her as 50. I thought that was brilliant. So she did an incredible job without losing the character at all, just that whole, very subtle aging. Maturing. Maturing is better than aging.
Lea: And that was also apparent during that rapid aging of the kids when they went from 15, 17, 18… that was great. The physicality.
Sybil: But all of them had to go from being 7.
Lea: Almost 8!
Sybil: Almost 8, to early 20s. And they all did that without losing the central core of who they were. It was really lovely.
Lea: This show doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve heard. There’s no big dance number. It’s the metre of it.
Sybil: It’s almost like folk song, or folk verse.
Lea: Yes.
Sybil: I don’t know any other musical that has so much spoken verse.
Lea: I think it’s interesting with Helen – her big notes came with the chorus behind her.
Sybil: Exactly. How many musicals do you get with one person on stage singing a very passionate song and there are voices off stage supporting them, that actually aren’t part of the story.
Lea: Yes, there’s no ego in it. It’s about the story is in that moment. But as the support, the angst of the community, the depth of her feeling… it all added to it. But it’s not a musical that’s trying too hard. The songs came…
Sybil: From the story! It’s totally story driven.
Lea: Totally. And I don’t feel like it dates because it’s not really aligned to any time.
Sybil: Well it kind of is, in the story of the late 70s/ early 80s was politically…
Lea: Oh I meant musically.
Sybil: Oh musically it doesn’t date… but politically it very much does. But then again, it probably could have been updated to now in the UK. So, come on… out of 10. Actually out of 5 because we don’t do out of 10!
Lea: You just changed the rules! 4 to 4 and a quarter. But we don’t have quarters.
Sybil: We keep talking about creating one! I’m going to go 4. And it loses points for accent and that’s it. And it’s a big point to lose for an accent but this is such an accent driven show because you have the class issues, and I just didn’t quite hit the mark and because everything else was amazing…
Lea: For me it loses for the way the narrator was handled.
Sybil: But amazing. Amazing! Hayes, you’ve started the year very well.
Lea: I think they should tour it.
Sybil: I do too!

IN SUMMARY

Sybil: It’s a joy to see a musical again after so long – and even more joyous when it’s so darn good. I don’t have a lot to say other than I wish I could see it again. It’s worth it just for Helen Dallimore… like Marilyn Monroe. (Just maybe go for red wine if they haven’t fixed their fridge!)
Lea: This small cast musical packs such an emotional punch. Hayes again shows us that you don’t need the mega bells and whistles to make memorable music theatre. Start with amazing talent, on and off the stage, and add a story worthy of telling. Magic.
Question: What makes a musical memorable for you?

PRE & POST SHOW DRINKS: In the Hayes foyer of course. We even nabbed a spot on the balcony. The bar fridge was on the fritz that evening. We persevered with white anyone for some reason. Should have switched to red (the clue was in the title).