Willy Russell’s epic award winning musical Blood Brothers  is probably the greatest British working class musical ever. 

This incredible story follows the Faustian pact made by a young woman with no money who agrees to give away one of her twin baby boys to a wealthy woman because she is unable to feed him - we then follow the contrasting fortunes of the two lads and the two mothers over a period of 25 years.

With fantastic performances from Niki Colwell Evans, Paula Tappenden, Jay Worley and Josh Capper plus a wonderful book and insightful social comment there is lots to engage, entertain and make the audience think.

 Blood Brothers opened in London in 1983 and in many ways it looks like the production has barely changed so the big question is does this show still have what it takes 40 years later

I was invited to see the show as a guest of the Lighthouse, Poole as part of its UK Tour.

This week we look at The Bands Visit by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses playing at the Donmar Warehouse

This musical is set in the middle of nowhere, nothing much happens but it will delicately tease out your emotions through its combination of a beautiful evocative score, a tight and insightful book and a wonderful cast including established West End stars, incredible actors making their professional debuts and an actor new to the UK who I am convinced will become a West End star on the basis of her performance in this wonderful show

The Bands Visit is based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name. 

As a musical it played on Broadway from October 2017 to April 2019 and deservedly won 10 Tonys, a Grammy and a whole load of other awards

The London production is the European premiere of this exquisite show

This Mischief production is brilliantly written by Henry Shields, expertly directed by Henry Lewis and performed by an incredible cast 

Good Luck Studio is a very funny play that takes its cues and sense of humour from The Goes Wrong stable and then develops into something altogether darker and deeper but just as hilariously funny.