I read this book and watched the play as part of my GCSE course, and would strongly recommend reading this, even just for pleasure. The emotion transmitted through the music, singing and actors performance does not detract form the dialogue within the book, but definitely enhances the harsh realities within this story. After reading the book, watching the play is a must. This heart warming book transforms into a gripping, dramatic play, which touches on the heartstrings of all audiences. There are occasions of humour and innocence, which later becomes sinister and tragic, as neither family can escape the ultimate betrayal. The play explores the hardship between the class divide and demonstrates the impact of family secrets, guilt and conscience. The secret transaction must never be revealed, however, the twins become friends, unaware that they are actually birth twins.

Mrs Johnstone, a single mother struggling to make ends meet has no option but to give away one of her baby twins to Mrs Lyons, a wealthy woman that has yearns for a child of her own. Set in Liverpool during the 60s/70s, Willy Russell's musical provides a window into the lives of two families, that are socially poles apart. Willy Russell describes a dramatic, yet tragic tale, of two women that share a dark secret. If you're lucky enough to get to London, by all means make 'Blood Brothers' top priority for the show to see. Read the book it won't ruin the play for you. The young man sitting next to me had seen 'Blood Brothers' for the sixteenth time! And still, he had tears in his eyes, as did I. 'Blood Brothers', like 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Les Miserables' and 'Chicago' is definitely a more than one time show. Backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the experience is nothing short of magic. Johnstone, and Willy Russell haunting the stage, the electricity flies. With real life brothers taking on such an emotionally charged project, Petula Clark as the tragic Mrs. Willy Russell plays the role of the Narrator, and he has a magnificent voice. The first, starring Kiki Dee, another (I believe from the Broadway version), and an 'international version' starring Petula Clark, David Cassidy and Shaun Cassidy. Another point of interest: if you look hard enough, you can find three Original Cast versions.

Oddly, the show didn't endear itself to Broadway, but it has been running since the 80's in London. These are people we know, these are our friends, our neighbors, perhaps even ourselves. The premise of the plot has been done time and again, but Russell magically shows us how everything old is new again-and brilliantly so. Willy Russell lovingly crafted every aspect of the story. What I loved most was the uncalulated, 'sorry but this is life' attitude, and the total believability of all of the characters. I saw the London stage version of 'Blood Brothers' last summer and left the Adelphi Theater completely and satisfyingly exhausted from the emotions that the story wrung out of me. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice.

Willy russell blood brothers book