Preview: Blood Brothers at Sunderland Empire

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Bill Kenwright's legendary production returns to Sunderland Empire

Blood Brothers

Sunderland Empire

Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 March 2026

Photos: Jack Merriman

Few musicals have endured with the fierce, tearful loyalty that Willy Russell's Blood Brothers commands. Since its premiere at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1983 — itself born from a school play two years earlier — this epic tale of twins separated at birth, class division and inexorable fate has sold out theatres on every continent, clocked more than 10,000 performances in London's West End alone, and earned the unofficial title of the Standing Ovation Musical. This March, Bill Kenwright's multi-award-winning production sweeps into Sunderland Empire for five unmissable performances, carrying with it a cast of returning favourites and fresh talent that promises to make the rafters of this magnificent Edwardian theatre ring once more.

Blood Brothers runs at Sunderland Empire from Tuesday 17 to Saturday 21 March 2026. Below, we present everything you need to know about the production — and an in-depth interview with its leading lady, Vivienne Carlyle, who has spent much of her career inhabiting the indomitable Mrs. Johnstone.

 

VENUE	Sunderland Empire
DATES	Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 March 2026
TICKETS	From £15 at ATGTickets.com/Sunderland
WRITTEN BY	Willy Russell
DIRECTED BY	Bob Tomson & Bill Kenwright
RUNNING TIME	Approx. 2 hrs 30 mins (including interval)

 

 

About the Show

Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving tale of twins separated at birth, who grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with tragic consequences. When Mrs. Johnstone — a young mother deserted by her husband and left to provide for seven hungry children — takes a job as a housekeeper to make ends meet, her brittle world crashes around her when she discovers she is pregnant again, this time with twins. In a moment of weakness and desperation, she enters a secret pact with her employer that leads inexorably to the show's shattering climax.

What makes the piece so remarkable is its tonal range. For all its heartbreak — and there is a great deal of it — Blood Brothers is also frequently hilarious, shot through with Russell's characteristic wit and a deep, affectionate warmth for its working-class Liverpool characters. Adults playing children, broad comedy alongside piercing social observation, and a score of indelible songs: it is a combination that has proved irresistible to audiences for over four decades.

'Considered one of the best musicals ever' — The Sunday Times. Bill Kenwright's production has been affectionately christened the Standing Ovation Musical, and inevitably it brings the audience cheering to its feet — Daily Mail.

The show's credentials are extraordinary. It has completed sell-out seasons in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan, and received seven Tony Award nominations on Broadway. It also scooped four Best Musical awards in London. Yet for all its global success, Blood Brothers retains an intimacy — a sense that it is speaking directly to each member of the audience — that is rarely found in musicals of its scale.

 

Willy Russell: A Playwright of His People

The writer behind Blood Brothers, Willy Russell, is one of this country's leading contemporary dramatists. His credits include Educating Rita — originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and subsequently filmed with Michael Caine and Julie Walters — and Shirley Valentine, which also transferred triumphantly from stage to screen with Pauline Collins and Tom Conti, before making a triumphant West End return in 2023 with Sheridan Smith in the title role.

Russell's genius lies in his ability to create characters — almost always working-class, almost always women — of extraordinary depth and comic richness. Mrs. Johnstone is perhaps his greatest creation: a woman who begins the story as a teenager and ages across three decades of hardship, love, loss and guilt, yet never loses the fierce, bruised dignity that makes audiences fall in love with her every night.

"It started as a play at a Liverpool comprehensive school in 1981. Now it moves the world."

 

The Production

This production, presented by Bill Kenwright Ltd, has been directed by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright himself — the same creative partnership that has shepherded the show through countless tours and the long West End run. The Resident Director for the current tour is Tim Churchill, who also appears on stage as Mr. Lyons.

The creative team is completed by Music Supervisor Matt Malone, Sound Designer Dan Samson, Set and Costume Designer Andy Walmsley, and Lighting Designer Nick Richings. Together, they have created a production that honours the timeless simplicity of Russell's original storytelling while delivering the visual and sonic scale that modern audiences expect.

 

Spring 2026 Cast

The Spring 2026 tour brings together a company of performers with long and deep connections to this show, many of whom return to roles they have inhabited on previous tours. Sunderland audiences will be treated to a cast at the height of its powers.

 

PERFORMER	ROLE
Vivienne Carlyle	Mrs. Johnstone
Richard Munday / Kristofer Harding	The Narrator
Laura Harrison	Mrs. Lyons
Sean Jones	Mickey
Joe Sleight	Eddie
Gemma Brodrick	Linda
Michael Gillett	Sammy
Tim Churchill	Mr. Lyons / Resident Director
Francesca Benton-Stace	Donna Marie / Miss Jones
Latesha Karisa	Brenda
Danny Knott	Perkins
Dominic Gore	Neighbour
Alex Harland	Policeman / Teacher
Graeme Kinniburgh	Postman / Bus Conductor

 

Vivienne Carlyle continues as Mrs. Johnstone after gaining widespread critical acclaim and nightly standing ovations on the show's most recent tours. Richard Munday rejoins as the Narrator at certain venues, having played the role on the 2022–23 UK tour, sharing the part with Kristofer Harding, who first took on the role in 2016 and returned for the most recent 2025 tour.

Joe Sleigh, Gemma Brodrick & Sean Jones

Fresh from alternating the role of Elphaba in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria and covering Norma Desmond in Jamie Lloyd's celebrated production of Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy, Laura Harrison returns to Blood Brothers as Mrs. Lyons — a significant step up from her previous appearance in the 2015 tour as Donna Marie. Sean Jones and Joe Sleight reprise the roles of twin brothers Mickey and Eddie, and Gemma Brodrick continues as Linda.

 

 

INTERVIEW

Vivienne Carlyle on Mrs. Johnstone, the magic of theatre, and a life spent in the spotlight

 

 

Vivienne Carlyle has one of the most remarkable histories with Blood Brothers of any performer currently touring in it. She played Mrs. Lyons in 2006, understudied Mrs. Johnstone and took the lead at that time, then played Mrs. Johnstone for the Scottish tour dates in 2007 and 2008, before returning to the role for nine months at the Phoenix Theatre in London in 2012. She spoke to the North East Theatre Guide ahead of the Sunderland run.

 

 

Vivienne Carlyle & Sean Jones

 

For people who are new to the show, what is Blood Brothers all about?

Blood Brothers is by the amazing Willy Russell, who wrote the book and the music, and it's about a mother named Mrs. Johnstone who is trying to make ends meet. She's very poor. Her husband leaves her and she's left with seven children and then discovers she's pregnant again. When she finds out she's having twins, Mrs. Johnstone confides in her employer Mrs. Lyons, who is childless and who persuades her to give her one of the babies. Fast-forward to seven years later, the two boys end up meeting, and it's about their story as well as their mother's and how their lives are intertwined even though they're separated. They're brought back together with tragic results, but it's not just a heartbreaking show. There are huge comedy elements in it and you have adults playing kids, which also strikes the imagination of our younger audiences. You become connected to these characters and then you see them grow up, and you follow on their journey with them. It's a very interesting piece of theatre and in my opinion one of the best shows I've ever performed in.

What do you like about the character of Mrs. Johnstone?

I love her strength and her resilience. No matter how hard life is for her and despite her feeling guilt for what she's done, she still tries to do the best she can with as much grace as she can muster. In spite of everything that happens, she still rises up at the end. I love that and I think it's a great message for us in life because that's what we have to do. We've all had terrible things happen in our lives and it's about how we deal with them, recover, move on and live the rest of our lives.

Can you relate to her in any way?

Both of my parents were very encouraging in terms of how when you have a problem you work through it. They set the bar high for me in terms of saying 'We don't run away from our problems, we stand up to them, we do the best we can, we keep going and never take no for an answer' and all that sort of thing. I was very lucky that they instilled that in me and in that way I can relate to Mrs. Johnstone because I think I'm quite strong. I'm a feisty Scot and Mrs. Johnstone is a feisty scouser. She's a beautiful character to play.

What's your history with the show and what's it been like returning to it for the UK tour?

I played Mrs. Lyons in 2006, when Maureen Nolan was playing Mrs. Johnstone and I was also her understudy so I got to play the lead for my first time back then. In 2007 and 2008 I played Mrs. Johnstone for the Scottish dates of the tour, then returned to the role in 2012 for nine months at the Phoenix Theatre in London. Being back in the show now is just amazing and hopefully I'm bringing new things to it. You grow as a person and I feel like a completely different person now. Emotionally I would say I'm tougher in some ways and more vulnerable in others. As an actor, you use your life experiences and try and dig deep. Our director Bob Thomson wants us to be as raw, authentic and as real as we can possibly be.

What makes Mrs. Johnstone such an iconic musical theatre character?

She starts out at around age 18, so you get to play this huge arc of a beautiful story and a beautiful journey. Life keeps throwing things at her and she keeps rising. She keeps getting knocked down again but she keeps going. I think that's what makes Mrs. Johnstone so relatable because that's what we all do. People watching it — and I don't mean just women, I think it's the same with men who come to see it as well — go 'Well, that's life, isn't it?'

How's the reaction been to the show from audiences on the tour so far?

They laugh, they cry and they are very emotional at the end. It really touches people, a lot of whom come back to see it again. We get a lot of return visitors who have seen the show many times over the years. They come back, they see a different cast and they fall in love with it all over again in a different way.

What's the nicest bit of feedback you've gotten about it?

One time we were in Skegness and a boy aged around 14 or 15 had been to see it with his school the day before. He brought back his mum and dad the following night, and I was so touched by that because he had felt such a connection to the piece. He was really quite overwhelmed by it and I just felt 'How fantastic is it that the show is still relevant to this age group when, you know, there's not a mobile phone in sight and none of the technology that we have today?' because it starts in the 50s and goes through to the 80s.

Blood Brothers premiered in 1983. Why do you think it has endured for all these years?

I think the story is really unique and gripping, and the characters are very strongly drawn. No matter who you are — whether you're in your teens, your 30s, your 70s or whatever stage in life you're at — you'll come and see the show and there'll be some character in it that you can connect with. You go on this journey with the person that you connect with the most and it moves you emotionally.

Vivienne Carlyle & Kristofer Harding

How would you sum up the magic of musical theatre?

Theatre is live, so you immediately connect with it and it's got that sense of urgency. The stakes are higher when you're watching something knowing that it's unravelling in front of you. You can't press pause, which you can with streaming and things like that. Anywhere there's live theatre and live music there's a level of excitement that you don't get anywhere else. It's like coming together as a community and watching something that bonds you. And of course with a musical the emotions are heightened. As a performer, when I'm on stage it's music that moves me in an almost primal way.

What first sparked your interest in acting as a career?

My dad and gran started an amateur group in Glasgow called The Apollo Players, which is where he met my mum. I was pretty much raised in a trunk. They used to do two shows at the King's Theatre in Glasgow every year, so I was kind of weaned on musical theatre. One time they were doing Gypsy and I remember sitting in the audience, aged six or seven, listening to the orchestra tune up, then they played the overture and I just started crying. I felt so connected to it. As for what led to me taking it up as a profession, I'd gone to university thinking that acting was something I'd like to do but never imagining it would happen. Then I was cast as the principal girl in panto at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, in Babes in the Wood, and that led to other work. I eventually travelled down to London and gave myself three months, vowing 'If I haven't got anything within that time, I'm going back to Scotland'. Within two months I was the Narrator on the tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and three years later made my West End debut with Stephen Gately as Joseph.

Can you pick a few career highlights?

Doing Joseph was really special because it was my West End debut. I was a singer for Cirque du Soleil, which was another highlight, and I was Mother Gothel in Disney's Tangled: The Musical, where it was great fun playing a villain. And Blood Brothers is really dear to my heart, which is why I'm so happy to be back in the show. I'm just happy to keep working and I hope the roles keep coming in.

 

Whether you have seen Blood Brothers a dozen times or are coming to it fresh, this production offers something rare: a show in which every element — writing, performance, design — operates at the very top of its game. Vivienne Carlyle's Mrs. Johnstone has been winning standing ovations on every leg of this tour, and the supporting cast bring decades of collective experience to roles they clearly love. Willy Russell's score, from the haunting 'Tell Me It's Not True' to the irresistibly joyous 'Bright New Day', delivers the full emotional spectrum in under three hours.

And then there is the venue itself. Sunderland Empire, one of the North East's great theatrical treasures, is the ideal setting — its grand Edwardian interior lending the story of class, aspiration and fate an added weight and grandeur. Five nights only. Do not miss it.

"They laugh, they cry — and they come back to see it again. — Vivienne Carlyle"

 

How to Book

Dates:  Tuesday 17 – Saturday 21 March 2026

Venue:  Sunderland Empire, High Street West, Sunderland SR1 3EX

Tickets:  From £15 — available at ATGTickets.com/Sunderland

Note:  A transaction fee of £3.95 may apply to online bookings