Blood Brothers, Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

May 16 2008 By Paul Marston

WILLY Russell's brilliant musical is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Black Country audiences are welcoming it with the usual emotion-charged standing ovations.

It is also 25 years since Linda Nolan left the famous family singing group to embark on a solo career, and despite her vast experience she cannot hold back the tears at the dramatic finale when her twins sons are involved in a heart-stopping shoot-out with the police.

No stranger to personal tragedy, she gives a wonderful performance as the lovable working class Liverpool mum-of-seven whose husband walks out when she becomes pegnant again, so, in financial trouble, she reluctantly agrees to give one of her newborn twins away to a wealthy woman desperate for a child. When the lads meet again, aged seven, it triggers a train of events, both humorous and tragic, with Sean Jones totally convincing as Mickey, the rough lad heading for prison, while Worcester-born Simon Willmont is an impressive Eddie, growing up with all the benefits of a well-to-do family from the posh side of town.

Keith Burns plays the Narrator with the right amount of menace, Emma Nowell sparkles as Linda, the girl both twins fall for, and there is delightful comedy from Graham Martin, the policeman and teacher whose instant switch from a polished private school tutor to a rugged secondary school teacher is real quality.

There's hardly a dry eye in the theatre as the musical ends with a shattered Nolan singing Tell Me It's Not True.

Blood Brothers runs to May 24, and arrives at Birmingham Hippodrome from October 20 to November 1.