Blood Brother Review

Chris Black
Staff Reporter

Blood Brothers by Willie Russell is a story of humor and tragedy. A mother is forced to give one of her fraternal twins away so she could support the children she already has. Rangeview’s version was a great success. Each scene was suspenseful, intriguing, and well acted. The play is set in Liverpool England showing the two sides of poor and rich families. The mothers of the twins wish to keep them apart however they meet each other as children and become blood brothers. Even though both parents tell them to stay away from each other the boys continue to play together. As the play goes on the two brothers take two different roads in life. Eddie (Gustavo Marquez) goes to University while Mickey (Ian Lyansyght) has to get a job. Mickey ends up getting fired from his job and pulling a heist with his brother Sammy (Alex Steincamp). Mickey goes to jail and is put on pills for the chronically depressed. Mickey finds out that Eddie is hanging out with his wife Linda (Katie Scott) and finds his brothers gun. Mickey runs to Eddie’s work and becomes conflicted about killing him. While Mickey is thinking one of the police sees him waving the gun and shoots him and because of the tension of the death Mickey pulls the trigger shooting Eddie.
The Rangeview theatre performed this play on February17th, 19th, and 20th. An interesting thing about Blood Brothers is that when it first came to America on Broadway the show failed. I think RHS has turned that failure inside out. Each actor performed their part exceedingly well and kept their accent most of the show. Junior Maddison Ritter who played Mrs. Johnston, the mother of the twins, had the best accent and kept hers throughout the entire show. Though Ritter is still young she aspires to be a great actress and singer and has proven herself of the highest quality in this show. Ian Lyansyght who played Mickey has shown much growth in his acting career, showing his skills in a part that is complicated and depressing. Senior Gustavo Marquez who played Eddie has always been a great singer however, he showed how amazing of a combo acting and singing can be. Junior Camille Shoumcker who played Mrs. Lyons made her début at RHS in Beauty and the Beast. Schoumcker played her part, in Blood Brothers, well enough that I disliked her. The way she portrayed the character was moving and extremely horrifying.
There are very few complaints that I have. The narrator played by Senior Doron Mitchell needed to project more when he was talking only because it was hard for the audience to hear. The actors needed to work on their accents more and try to put off more of the British attitude. Other than those few things I really had no other problems with the play.
The tech for this show was very simple. The stage had two pieces on each side for the set. The band sat on top of the two set pieces. The lighting was well portrayed and the colors worked very well. The student director Daniel Issacs along with Director Mrs. Strouse did an excellent job on this musical and I expect that even after I graduate when I come and see the shows they will be as spectacular as this one.