About the work
A musical in two acts by Willy Russell, premiered in 1983 in Liverpool. Russell, who wrote book, music and lyrics, tells the story of twins who are separated at birth and grow up in opposite social worlds of Liverpool.
Plot
The single mother Mrs. Johnstone, heavily in debt and already mother of seven, is expecting twins and, at the urging of her wealthy employer Mrs. Lyons, gives one of the children up for adoption. An old superstition holds that secretly separated twins must die the moment they learn of one another. Mickey and Eddie grow up a few streets apart, meet as children, become friends, and as young men fall in love with the same girl. The Narrator leads the two brothers inexorably toward their shared downfall, in which class barriers and fate coincide.
Cultural significance
Blood Brothers is among the longest-running musicals of London's West End and is regarded as one of Britain's most powerful works of socially critical music theatre. Russell combines pop ballads with a razor-sharp reckoning with Thatcherite class society.