Blood Brothers are Richmond Theatre was predictably entertaining

There are lots of gaps in my Cultural Capital and Blood Brothers was one of them. I think that it had been avoiding me more than I had been avoiding it but, whatever the reason, our paths had not crossed until a new touring version arrived at Richmond Theatre and I duly paid £37.5 for my usual seat Dress Circle A25.

The first good sign was that the music was live though as this was coming from a couple of keyboards and a PC I guessed that it would be amplified. I quickly learned that the singers were too. I never like that because of the quality of sound that it produces and the way that the sound comes from the wrong places but I understand why it is done; basically properly trained good singers are too expensive for shows like this. Luckily they can still be found at places like Glyndebourne!

I knew nothing of the story, other than the brief marketing blurb, so I was disappointed when the play started at the end before proceeding to show us how that end was reached. That story was simple, verging on simplistic, with absolutely no surprises but it did enough to engage throughout, usually by exaggerating children's behaviours.

The music was OK without doing anything very much. There was one thing that I did like a lot though and that was the recurring "Marilyn Monroe" refrain.

Blood Brothers was more craft than art so was not really my sort of thing but the crafting was good and I was properly entertained if not moved.