blood brothers

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Blood Brothers

Willy Russell’s play ‘Blood Brothers’ tells the story of twin boys separated at birth on the opposite sides of the social ladder. The play follows the twists and turns of each of their lives concluding in their final meeting, which results in their death. Throughout the play there are many musical scores, which enhance the atmosphere and tensions of the play.

We first see Mrs Johnstone when she talks about the twins and her old life. She sings a song about her husband and all her children. You expect Mrs Johnstone to be upset about her husband leaving and having seven children to look after without having much money. Because she’s singing about it, it gives the impression that she’s not that upset about what happened and looks towards the future hoping it’ll be bright and cheerful. She uses the repetition of Marilyn Monroe and dancing. She might be referring to Marilyn Monroe because her husband used to think she was sexier than Marilyn Monroe and she didn’t have any responsibilities like her children, and was able to do things when she wanted instead of having to think of other people first. Then she had children, which made her look older and heavier and in the words of the song “My husband wouldn’t go (dancing), with someone twice the size of Marilyn Monroe” and they held her down so they couldn’t do the things the husband wanted them to do. So he left her for another girl who looked like Marilyn Monroe and had no strings tied to her.

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I think she associates herself with Marilyn Monroe because Marilyn Monroe always acted happy and as if life was the best but on the inside she felt as if life wasn’t worth it and it was the pits. This suggests to the audience that being a movie star isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and being poor is just as hard.

The music for this song is very subdued. It doesn’t have a large variety of instruments in it, and the instruments that are used are calm and relaxing and not very heavy and upbeat.

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