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Weekly UpdatesByline: GORDON BARR
IT has to be one of the most staged musicals in the region, yet still attracts huge audiences.
Blood Brothers is back in the North East later this month and North East actor Graham Martin cannot wait to return to the region.
He takes on the role of the policeman/teacher and cannot get enough of the musical, which is at Sunderland Empire from September 14 to 26.
"I did a year in the West End, and then I've been on tour two years in September," says Graham, who trained as an actor at Stockton and Billingham Technical College, then left his native Middlesbrough to study at the Arts Educational Schools in London. It is one of those shows. We call the show the coast of California - you can check out but you never really leave. You just keep coming back as it is such a wonderful piece.
"You see people at the stage door and it is their tenth time seeing it. It has a huge following, people come back as it has everything, the pathos, the comedy and then that huge tragedy at the end. Not a lot of shows have that. All the way through the first act there is so much good comedy, then it builds and builds and takes you on a rollercoaster ride until that enormous tragedy at the end that has thee audience in tears."
Following sell out seasons in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan, the international smash hit musical Blood Brothers continues to tour the UK.
Hailed as one of the best musicals of all time, it has triumphed across the globe, scooping up no less than four awards for best musical in London and seven Tony Award nominations on Broadway.
The epic tale of Liverpool life has been running in London's West End, since July 1988 and touring the UK since 1995.
It tells the captivating and moving story of twin boys separated at birth, only to be reunited by a twist of fate and a mother's haunting secret.
When Mrs Johnstone, a young mother, is deserted by her husband and left to her own devices to provide for seven hungry children she takes a job as a housekeeper in order to make ends meet.
It is not long before her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers herself to be pregnant yet again - this time with twins! In a moment of weakness and desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer which leads inexorably to the show's shattering climax.
It was written by Willy Russell, one of Britain's leading contemporary dramatists. His other credits included Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
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EVERGREEN - Graham Martin delights in the pleasures of performing in Blood Brothers
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