It has audiences gripped to the end – even when they know the ending. Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers is touring again this year. Here, the award winning playwright talks about the show with an enduring tale to tell and his plans for its future.

I was walking along one day; I lifted my right foot and by the time I put my foot down I had the story... Sometimes that happens, but very, very, very rarely. Thinking back, when I was at my first secondary school when I was 11, I do remember being involved in some class that was looking at a play. And I have this dim memory of the idea of a baby being taken in one direction and its nurture being decided by which baby was taken from a pram. Now I don’t know if I’ve imagined that. It was just the kernel of an idea sown all those years ago.

What I was interested in was what happens to twins when they go their separate ways... If she picked the other one out of the pram, would it have been any different? I didn’t want a dry academic ‘nature versus nurture’ debate to go on, but that is what’s at the centre of it. The other big influence was seeing Jimi Hendrix for the first time on television performing Hey Joe. “Hey Joe where you goin’ with that gun in your hand? I’m goin’ down to shoot my old lady” It’s not only the lyrics, it’s the fantastic kind of urban violence that’s in that song – terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

The story was building over many years... At first I just thought that I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I was the composer, so I talked to other people about doing it, but nothing came of any of those discussions. Then one day I just thought: “This is crazy, do it yourself.”

Bob Swash, who had produced John, Paul, George, Ringo…and Bert had come to see the schools version of Blood Brothers on tour in Liverpool, and absolutely loved it. He said: “When are you going to write a musical for me?” and I said: “You’ve just seen it, Bob.” I said I would compose the first act music before he had to commit to it. So I did that and when I went to his office in London and played it to him, he was ecstatic.

People do see it more than once and one of the reasons is that it is a musical with a strong book, it’s got a tale to tell... If all the electricity fails in the theatre and you can’t light the show or amplify it, you can still do the show with a piano, and even if the piano blows you can still do the show a capella, and it will work! It simply relies on that primal, ageless, universal thing of “I’m going to tell you a story.” Your ears prick up and you stay with it, and there’s no better experience.

I’ve written a screenplay... I did it with Alan Parker a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved doing it – we both did. I’m very proud of the screenplay, but we didn’t take anybody’s money upfront. The idea was that we wrote the screenplay of the film of Blood Brothers that we wanted to be made. It’s not a small, low budget English picture; it’s a big budget musical. So that’s not going to happen overnight! But all I can say is, watch this space…

THE PLAY

Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving story of twin boys separated at birth, only to be reunited by a twist of fate.
The musical features Mrs Johnstone, a young mother, deserted by her husband and left to provide for seven hungry children.
Discovering she is pregnant with twins she enters a secret pact with her employer which leads inexorably to the show’s shattering climax.
With show-stopping music, the show, ran in the West End for more than 10,000 performances and is on tour around the country this year.
This new production stars Lyn Paul as Mrs Johnstone, a role she first played in 1997.

DETAILS

It will be at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley until Saturday, February 27. For tickets call 020 8290 8262 or visit www.atgtickets.com/bromley