Blood Brothers - Metcalfe Playhouse

My sister and I saw this production of Blood Brothers last Thursday at the Metcalfe Playhouse. Having moved from the UK only 2 years ago, I was excited to see a professional production arriving in Perth – I have seen the west end production twice before and loved it. My sister still lives in the UK but was over for a two week holiday so decided to surprise her with a night at the theatre and dinner at Sorrento Restaurant. This was the first time I had been to the Metcalfe Playhouse – what a great venue. Very comfortable seats and good views of the stage. Upon entering the theatre we were greeted with a very modest set. A red floor with two bodies outlined on it and a similar coloured wall running along the back with large images of Marilyn Monroe attached. Also lettering above the wall spelling out ‘Liverpool’ – I’m assuming to remind the audience of the location just in case we forgot (proved to be useful later upon hearing the accents). The band were also positioned on the left hand of the stage. Within the first 10/20 mins of the show beginning it was clear that this was not going to be a west end version of the show – everything seemed completely different. I assume that the director had taken artistic licence and approached this show from a different perspective (would be interested to know if they had seen the original) but we both felt that the passion and darkness of this beautiful show was lost through these changes. Accents seemed to be a major issue for most of the cast with only a handful achieving the scouse effect. The rest were made up of a variation of accents including south African and Irish. Surely this would have been a priority in approaching the show – some of them were just embarrassing. The other disappointment was the music itself. A very small group of musicians who are obviously very talented within their field but for some reason felt it necessary to turn the musical score into a jazz routine – why? The music in this show is fantastic and helps create the underlying darkness throughout – all this was shattered when the ‘jazz’ approach’ was taken on most songs. As an audience member it left me feeling flat and disconnected. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had not seen the original and had a bench mark already set. Overall the acting was okay – but again nothing special. Amanda (Mrs Johnstone) had a great loud character which initially seemed to provide a bit of a kick start to the show - but this soon wore off. Again not sure what the accent was and she seemed to lose her voice during the second act, so the grand finale “Tell me it’s not true” involved mainly chorus singing and not much Mrs Johnstone. Eddie was overall very good and was consistent, although Mickey was not. Mickey also had a huge accent issue and came across as a very disturbed boy for most of the show – abnormal. The brothers interaction at times seemed suggestive (Blood Lovers rather than Brothers) Linda was very good with a great presence and voice. Also the narrator was a pleasure to watch and Mrs Lyons. Overall the production was a little disappointing. Not sure if this was because we saw the show on a preview night. We paid $40 each to see the preview evening of what I assumed was a professional show and according to the website will be $67 normally. Not convinced that this is really a professional show and if audience get value for money. I noticed on Ticketek website that you can buy C reserve tickets for Mary Poppins at Burswood Theatre in 2012 for $40 a ticket. I may have a biased opinion based on the original production and perhaps this show would be enjoyable for those who have not seen it.