Blood Brothers

Act One

The musical opens with the bodies of Mickey and Edward lying on stage. The Narrator delivers the prologue, explaining that the men were twins who were separated at birth. He invites the audience to judge their mother’s guilt (Mrs Johnstone) for her role in their deaths.

Mrs Johnstone, a working-class mother of seven children, discovers that she is pregnant with twins shortly after her husband left her for another woman (“Marilyn Monroe”). She shares her plight with her employer, Mrs Lyons, who immediately hatches a plan. She convinces Mrs Johnstone to give her one of the babies. She is unable to have children and her husband is working abroad so the timing is perfect for her to fake a pregnancy (“My Child”). Mrs Johnstone agrees and is made to swear an oath upon the Bible that she will not reveal the baby’s true parentage. When the babies are born, Mrs Johnstone names them Michael (Mickey) and Edward (Eddie). Reluctantly, she tells Mrs Lyons to take one, but immediately regret