Separated at birth

PC breathes life into Blood Brothers

by Bill Rodriguez

BLOOD BROTHERS. Book, music and lyrics by Willy Russell. Directed by Mary G. Farrell, with musical direction by Tom Hojnacki. At Providence College's Blackfriars Theater through April 25.

One of these days I hope you'll sit down with me and explain, very slowly and clearly, why enough people like the musical Blood Brothers to have made it a bit of a hit. I understand how it got the locals swooning sentimentally when it first hit the Liverpool stage back in 1984. Yet somehow it made the trans-Atlantic passage to Broadway, successfully, without requiring Paul and Ringo in the leads.

Yet despite its odd combination of grit and treacle, even I can see how the charming and lively performances in the current Providence College production, under Mary G. Farrell's direction, could make this another successful run

It's easy to see how Liverpuddlians would weep into their black and tans over this. Its entire premise and substance burbles with class ferment and resentment. Twin boys are expected by a working-class mum. Poor Mrs. Johnstone (Erin Joy Schmidt) already has a half-dozen kids, and the social welfare agency is muttering that some might have to be "put into care." The posh lady she works for, Mrs. Lyons (Jacqueline Oswald), can't get pregnant, but her husband (Brian E. Canell) won't hear of adoption. Mrs. Lyons convinces her housekeeper that both of them and one of the prospective boys would be better off if she raised him. The overwhelmed Mrs. Johnstone, abandoned by her husband soon after marrying, reluctantly vows to hand one over, and everyone's fate is sealed.

This is all tied together by a black-leathered and studded Narrator (Meghan T. Kelly), whose one-woman Greek chorus doesn't let us forget that ominous activities are afoot.

Blood Brothers is based on an English folk-myth, that if twins are torn apart at birth this fact must never be revealed to them, or they will die on the same day. (I'm giving away nothing to reveal this, since that and much more about the conclusion is pantomimed during the overture.) With that set-up, the culminating "I could have been him!" resentment falls flat and suspense is discarded as a plot device.

We first see the boys at age 7, and the appeal of the musical becomes understandable. Kids are cute. And the grown-up actors pull it off marvelously. Ryan Brown plays Mickey, the slum boy, as gawky and full of brazen bounce. Neal Ferreira is Eddie, shy and withdrawn but eager to come out of himself to join in. Their mothers forbid them to play with each other, but that's easily ignored. It's not hard for Mickey to get along with a rich kid who shares his sweets and adores him. Eddie, emotionally repressed, easily bonds with the expressive kid from the forbidden world of the street. Soon they cut their fingers to become blood brothers -- for life.

Of course, there has to be a love interest as a potential source of conflict. Jessica Tabak is a the sweet but assertive Linda, who in early grades publicly swears her undying love for the hesitant Mickey. Conveniently, and unaccountably, she ends up at the secondary school he goes to when his family is moved out of the city -- and coincidentally to where Eddie's mother has moved with him to get away from the Johnstones.

The songs and music are another puzzlement, with melodies and lyrics and book written by Willy Russell. The tunes aren't very catchy, so their droning sameness probably wouldn't be helped if more than two keyboards were backing the vocals in this production. The voices are decent, however, especially those of Schmidt and Oswald. Among the songs, "Marilyn Monroe" and its four reprises provides a through line of faded dreams, reminding us that Mrs. Johnstone was quite the blond bombshell in her youth. Several other songs also underline the obvious, as when "Shoes Upon the Table" keeps reminding us that superstition orders the lower-class's lives.

In 1993, Petula Clark made her Broadway debut in the role of the working-class mother, with Shaun and David Cassidy as the brothers Johnstone. It's an admirable accomplishment by the Providence College troupe that they, accents intact, sustain the evening without our thinking that perhaps a star cast could make things more interesting with this material. But no, it would take a John Osborne -- or a Stephen Sondheim -- to accomplish that.