A multi-ethnic cast highlights stinging themes of class and poverty when Whitefire artistic director Bryan Rasmussen directs Blood Brothers, the Olivier Award-winning, Tony-nominated musical drama by Willy Russell (Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine). The tragic musical tale opens at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks on October 18 for a six-week run through November 23.
An emotionally intense and sometimes gritty drama with a haunting folk/rock score, Blood Brothers examines the impact of social class on the lives of a single mother and her twin sons who are separated at birth.
"I first saw Blood Brothers in London in 1983 and was just blown away," says Rasmussen. "The audience was in tears and gave it a standing ovation - and if you see it in London today, it's still like that. I've been trying to figure out how to do this play for over 25 years. It recently struck me that a multi-ethnic cast would make this very British play about social hierarchy resonate for American audiences. For us, race represents socioeconomic class.
In England, Blood Brothers has become a phenomenon of sorts, one of the world's longest-running musicals with a loyal repeat audience - even a cult following: "The audience rose to its feet with near-religious rapture," noted The Mail on Sunday. "A masterpiece - if you haven't seen it, go. If you have, go again," wrote the Sunday Telegraph.
Few people know that Blood Brothers got its start as a school play in 1981. Fresh from the success of Educating Rita, Russell was commissioned to write a 70-minute piece for Merseyside Young People's Theatre Company, a small touring company that visited schools in the area. That version had only one song in it, but the day it opened Russell started work on the full-length piece. Blood Brothers opened at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983, transferring to London for a six-month run, where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical. Following a national tour, it reopened in 1988 at the Albery Theatre in London before transferring to the larger Phoenix Theatre on London's West End where it's still running, now in its 21st. year.
Members of the original British cast opened in a Broadway production in 1993, which received six Tony nominations.
Petula Clark later joined the cast along with real-life brothers
David Cassidy and
Shaun Cassidy as her sons, and they also starred in the U.S. national tour. Following Clark's portrayal, Mrs. Johnstone becoming a calling card for other 1960s pop singers, with
Carole King and
Helen Reddy later playing the role on Broadway.
The cast at the Whitefire is headed by Pamela Taylor as
Mrs. Johnson, a current member of L.A.'s Attic Theatre who recently transplanted from Seattle where she performed in theater and was a regular on the web/TV series 35th Street Mission. Judy Norton, best known as Mary Ellen on the Emmy Award-winning TV series, The Waltons, but also an actress with extensive stage experience who has been co-artistic director of two different Canadian theaters, plays Mrs. Lyons. Mickey is played by Eduardo Enrikez, recently seen by L.A. audiences in the title role in Bat Boy the Musical at the Hudson Mainstage as well as in Schoolhouse Rock Live at the Greenway Court and Is This Anyway to Start a Marriage at the Whitefire. Ryan Nealy, a newcomer to Los Angeles who has performed regionally at the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Round House and Studio Theatres in Washington, D.C., and at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, stars as Eddie. Also in the cast are Debra Arnott, Jess Busterna, Gil Darnell, Mueen Jahan, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper and Sita Young. Musical Director is Carson Schutze (the Los Angeles premieres of Tales of Tinseltown at Actor's Co-op and Dreamstuff at the Hayworth Theatre, and Associate Musical Director of the world premiere Sleeping Beauty Wakes for CTG), and
Brian Paul Mendoza choreographs.
Willy Russell is well known as the writer of plays and films such as Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Our Day Out. His first novel, The Wrong Boy, published in 2000, has been translated into fifteen languages and is currently being adapted for a major television series. What is perhaps less well known is that Willy has been writing songs since the early 1960s. He wrote not only the book and the lyrics but also the score for Blood Brothers, and also provided the scores for the feature films Shirley Valentine,
Dancin' Thru The Dark and Mr Love; the British TV series Connie; and the television play Terraces. Willy's first CD release, "Hoovering the Moon," has received favorable reviews and been picked up and played by radio stations across England.
Bryan Rasmussen is an award-winning actor as well as a director, producer, teacher, coach and the artistic director of the Whitefire Theatre. He has produced over 150 shows, including over 50 world premieres, directed a multitude of solo shows, and was the founder of the Itchey Foot Cabaret in Downtown Los Angeles. Most recently, he directed the world premiere solo musical Down the Rabbit Hole with pop star Erin Jividen; the 50th Anniversary production of
Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter (in which he also performed); the world premiere eco-musical Season of Change; the new solo show
Mark Twain in the 21st Century; and the musical-comedy romp Is this Any Way to Start a Marriage. Upcoming projects include the annual holiday hit Winter Tales, followed by The Glass Menagerie in the spring.
Blood Brothers is presented by Laura Coker in association with the Whitefire Theatre. Eduardo Enrikez produces. Set design is by Victoria Profitt; Lighting Design is by
Stephen Taylor; Sound Design is by Joseph "Sloe" Slawinski; and costume design is by Susanne Klein.
Performances are scheduled Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm, October 18 through November 23. There will be one preview performance on Friday, October 17 at 8 pm. General admission is $25; students and seniors are $20; the preview is Pay What You Can. The Whitefire Theatre is located at 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks (three blocks east of Woodman, at Sunnyslope). For reservations and information, call Theatermania at (866) 811-4111 or go to www.BloodBrothersLA.com.
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