Standing Ovations Nightly For Superb Blood Brothers

Thursday, January 30, 2003

THEATRE-GOERS in general have always had a soft spot for Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers with its universal appeal once again reflected in the standing ovations accorded nightly to Rebecca Storm and a superb cast at the Cork Opera House, where this musical for the common man is currently playing to sell-out crowds.

While no lavish spectacular, Blood Brothers is rightly acknowledged as having one of the best story lines of all the big West End and Broadway hit shows, striking a chord with audiences everywhere as it tugs at the heartstrings in telling the tale of the Johnstone twins, Mickey and Eddie, who were separated at birth only for fate to intervene and constantly reunion them.

Let there be no doubt about it, this touring production, which moves on to Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre after its Cork run concludes on Saturday next, is right up there with the very best, including those that have graced the London stage with distinction for the past fourteen years.

Its success hinges to a large extent on the Mrs. Johnstone character and there’s an inspirational performance, in both singing and acting terms, from the multi-talented Rebecca Storm, who has further matured into a lead role she has truly made her own.

Tell Me It’s Not True and Marilyn Monroe are the two best known songs from Blood Brothers, but Rebecca is in equally superb voice with Easy Terms, Bright New Day and the My Child duet with Jacqui Charlesworth, who is an impressive Mrs Lyons, ‘mother’ of Eddie, who swears a pact to get the child she could never have herself.

Sean Jones is, as required, hilariously hyper and at other times a sensitive but sadly depressed Mickey.

He gels really well with Daniel Fine’s prim and proper Eddie, the best friend he only learns is, in fact, his twin brother in a poignant tear-jerking finale scene. Their Long Sunday Afternoon duet epitomises what they mean to each other, while the upper crust Eddie is the perfect foil for Mickey’s side-splitting mannerisms and send ups.

Linda (Nikki Davis Jones) provides the romantic interest as the sympathetic, caring girlfriend and wife of Mickey, whom subsequently falls in love with Eddie with horrendous consequences. As a carefree schoolgirl and teenage temptress, with legs that seem to go all the way up to her armpits, Nikki is ideally cast and excels in the role. Peter Corrigan, as Sammy, Mickey’s hooligan elder brother, is also deserving of special mention.

However, on opening night after a fifteen minute delay to rectify technical problems, the excessive echo sound on the voice of narrator Keith Burns tended to drown out key lines of dialogue - The Devil’s Got Your Number being a case in point - with the result that his overall performance wasn’t on a par with that of Carl Wayne, of Sixties pop group The Move, who was a tremendously sinister narrator when I last saw Blood Brothers in the West End with the late great Stephanie Lawrence playing Mrs. Johnstone.

One other negative that left me and others baffled and annoyed was the inappropriate outburst of (nervous?) laughter from a section of the Opera House audience when Mickey confronted Eddie and shots rang out. It’s intended to be the most poignant scene in Blood Brothers but was somewhat spoiled by such insensitivity.

Nevertheless, if musical theatre - or simply a great night of theatre - is your forte, then this current production of Blood Brothers is a must. If you fail to get tickets for the remaining Opera House performances, you might have better luck making it to the Gaiety Theatre. Either way, you won’t come away disappointed.

Saturday 19th October 2002

Rebecca Storm came to Castletownbere at the behest of her friends Niamh, Rachel & Joe Supple, to perform, for free, for the people of Beara and raise money for two local Charities - St. Joseph's Hospital, Castletownbere and the Castletownbere Lifeboat.  The Supples, whose parents settled here in Beara some years back with their brother Robert have all since passed away and they wanted to do something for Beara by way of thanking all the people there for making the years they spend here so happy. 

The Castletownbere I.C.A. of which the late Phil Supple was a member, did the organising and co-ordinating here in Beara.  Larry Lawless, the owner of the Beara Bay/Beacon's Nightclub, gave the premises free of charge.  As the venue is specifically laid out as a nightclub, a lot of work had to be done to make it suitable both for the performers and the public - but they, the band and the local organisers overcame all those obstacles beautifully - maybe a little more than they bargained for - but they got there cheerfully.  It was the first time for many of those who attended (the over 30's) to step inside the doors of the newly refurbished nightclub and the reaction was very good indeed.  All seats were taken and standing room at the back also.  Everyone was greeted to a glass of wine and cheese before the concert began.

There was silence when Rebecca came on to perform - and wow - could she perform.  Not only has she got a powerful voice, she is also a very good entertainer to boot.  She and her band had traveled from Dublin that day and there was no sign of exhaustion in any of their performances.  She sang songs from the musicals she has performed in all over the world, such as Evita, Blood Brothers, Les Miserables and  Joan of Arc as well as some of her favourite songs - such as Jimmy Crowley's 'Bright Blue Rose' - to rapturous applauses.  Indeed for one of her songs, she came into the audience to get their participation!!  She was joined in the second half of her performance by 2 more singers - Becky Roberts and Belinda Murphy.  These able young ladies were dancers also - but because of lack of space, we were unable to view them 'strutting their stuff' as it were on stage.  Following her performance, she and her singing partners were presented with bouquets of flowers by the Supple family, who thanked them wholeheartedly for granting their wish to come down here to Castletownbere to perform.  We heard earlier from Rebecca, that her Mom passed away on the same day as her friend's Mom earlier this year - so it was a special event for her also, which she was more than happy to do.  Rebecca told everyone that she was performing in Cork in January and would love if we could attend and indeed to stop by her dressing room afterwards to say 'hello'.  Just a sample of what a lovely person she is.

Following the concert, Rebecca mingled with the crowd who stayed on and enjoyed chatting with them, while her band continued to play on to a packed dance floor (once the chairs were removed).

Everyone here in Beara wishes her well in her future career and thank her and her band most sincerely for coming down to Castletownbere (more miles than she thought) to perform and indeed raise funds for two very deserving causes.

July 30, 2001

Portraits of an artist who took the music world by Storm

©By Patrick Brennan
Over the past few years there have been few artists more popular in this country than singer Rebecca Storm.

The lady who first came to prominence in Ireland in her role as Mrs. Johnston in Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers currently has another solo album out called I Want To Know What Love Is.  It’s a compilation of the favourite songs sung by Rebecca in the various musicals she’s appeared in over the years.

By coincidence, Rebecca’s object of desire is also a form of retrospective. She stresses that people are always more important to her than objects. Nevertheless, the one item she would grab if her house were ever on fire is her trunk full of photographic albums. The photos span her entire life.

“There aren’t all that many photos of me as an actual baby but there are lots of me as a young child,” begins Rebecca. “One photo, in particular, shows me at the age of three standing up on a kitchen chair and singing me head off. So, I guess that’s how I started. Even as a very young kid I was performing. I actually remember enjoying listening to my mother sing around the house. Quite a few people said to her that I had a good voice but she didn’t really take them seriously until I was eight years old and played the role of Mary in a school nativity play.

“A lot of people came up to her after that and suggested I should join a choir, which I subsequently did. The photos I have, though, run through so many memories. There are some extremely embarrassing ones of me wearing things like hot pants as teenager singing in the working men’s clubs in Yorkshire. I also have lots of photos of me as a fresh-faced teen and older with my two front teeth missing. They actually didn’t really grow properly.

“It was my good friend Bob Monkhouse who advised me, while I was singing with him in the Midnight Cabaret show that used to tour the Butlin’s holiday camps in Britain, to go and get my teeth done and sorted out. You might say I’ve never looked back since. I have photos of me in all my shows. There are also photos of me with royalty.

“What I love about photographs is that they tell the story of your life. When you look at old photographs you see yourself as you really were and not how you imagine you were. You can see the times when you life was good and you were good. But, photos can also show you the bad times. It’s possible, I think, for photos to remind you what you were doing right in the good times and what you were doing wrong in the down times. As such, I believe you can learn a lot about yourself and also about the way to be and things to do to keep your life good.”

A little bit coy about her age, Rebecca was born and grew up in Shipley in West Yorkshire approximately 40 years ago. She studied music at Leeds University. Ironically, Rebecca’s own daughter and namesake is now also studying music at Leeds. She’s a multi-instrumentalist and like her mother years earlier she has formed her own band. Rebecca’s band was called the Rebecca Storm Band. They did quite well but then Rebecca decided she wanted a child. She got married, settled down and gave up singing.

“There was no way I was going to have a child and lug her with me all over the place as I toured with the band. As it turned out the five years away from singing served to remind me how much I loved it. Not too long after I came back singing I saw an advertisement in the magazine The Stage. I applied to the ad looking for female singer in new play cum musical Blood Brothers.

“After being successful at the first audition, where we were asked to sing, we were told to go away and record our voice on tape as well as come back with something prepared. Apparently Willy Russell and director Chris Bond decided in the car on the way over to the second set of auditions that I was the one they wanted. Of course, there is quite a lot of acting to do as Mrs. Johnston in Blood Brothers and I was petrified. I had to learn to act from scratch. Every lunch hour I puked my guts up with nerves. Chris Bond, though, was magnificent in the manner in which he got me ready for it all.”

It was during Blood Brothers’ second run at the Gaiety in 1995 that Rebecca met her partner and musical collaborator, Kenny Shearer. Shearer and Rebecca share a house in Naas that also has its own private recording studio. All of Rebecca’s previous album releases have gone gold or platinum. Whether or not I Want To Know What Love will do likewise, Rebecca Storm has enough memories in her photo albums to keep her going for a lifetime.

Rebecca Takes The Mid West By Storm

The Limerick Musical Society are bringing Rebecca Storm, who has wowed audiences all over Ireland and Britain to Limerick on Wednesday, October 10. The Society, which was set up at the beginning of the new millennium, has two hugely successful shows already under its belt: its debut production of Jesus Christ Superstar and last April's sell-out staging of Chess.

Rebecca Storm began her career as a night club and cabaret singer but her versatility and acting ability inevitably brought her to the forefront as a solo artist and musical star. Rebecca has since taken leading roles in top musicals in the West End - among them Evita, Joan of Arc, Les Miserables and Side By Side By Sondheim - on UK tours and in Ireland where she is hugely popular.

Her television roles have included appearances on all the major UK variety shows, the starring role as Tanya in the BBC TV rock opera of the same name, top of the bill in Live from the Olympia on RTE and Top of The Tops.

On Saturday, 28th April, Rebecca Storm swept into the Theatre Royal like a sharp spring breeze with a Broadway medley and a gust of Riverdance and built up to a summer storm from Les Miserables with her "voices like thunder" to an emotional tornado of songs from Blood Brothers.

No wonder she got an instant standing ovation as her audience were carried along by a class lady in a class act. She dreamed dreams for her audience, was vulnerable for them "I love you and hope you love me"; she had a sideways almost Sondheim spit at Streisand "send in the clowns, don't bother there here". She hinted at a Norma Desmond character that touched a very middle aged audience who wanted the pretence. "Say it's just pretend". But her artistry shone out and you knew, her audience knew, it wasn't just pretend, it was beautifully and poignantly real. Add to a star of her quality four singer/dancers, (very cabaret at Clontarf Castle) and a five man orchestra with wonderful sax and clarinet from Michael Buckley and violin from Alan Smale and you had all the moods, all the values of what makes the musical such an emotional roller-coaster ride.

The stage of The Royal, the curve of the balcony makes it so intimate as she enthused "What a fantastic theatre - a baby theatre like the Palace of Variety's in Yorkshire". She is a Yorkshire lass who first came to Ireland about 25 years ago in Blood Brothers and her act acknowledges the Irish influences in her career.

Two Riverdance slots, a different Carrickfergus with lots of edge and emphasis and an enchanting Jimmy McCarthy song "Bright Blue Rose", that she shared with singer/dancer Belinda Murphy, who also has emerging star quality. The clarinet of that song was amazing. A song she penned about the Goldenbridge abuse scandal "Freedom of Angels" was mawkish and a country tune "I'm Your Medicine" from her new CD seemed out of place.

Aspects of Rebecca

From the Irish Times, August 23, 1997

Are well-known people always smaller than you expect?  Certainly it’s the first thing I notice on meeting Rebecca Storm but it’s hardly a novel observation in an interview.  With singers, of course, the surprise is understandable, begging the question of how that big huge stadium-filler of a voice comes out of this small person.

And indeed, Rebecca Storm’s voice is larger than life.  Since she got her showbiz break by landing the role of Mrs. Johnstone in the 1984 tour of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers from among thousands of hopefuls, her heartbreakingly lovely voice has been heard in one hit musical after another, in concert, on disc and on TV.  When I arrive at the SFX centre where she is rehearsing Aspects of Love, the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit that opens at the Olympia this week, I realise her voice is not the only big thing about her; she has a personality that fills a room... but without pushing you out the door in the process.  After a firm handshake, she trots myself and the photographer energetically upstairs, simultaneously apologising for the state of the rather messy dressing room, offering a cup of coffee (“only plastic cups I’m afraid”) and confessing cheerfully that she’d completely forgotten that I was coming.  “Not to worry, but I do look awful.  Why don’t we have a chat while I slap on a bit of make-up.  Look at me, not even a scrap of mascara!”

Which is why I find myself in the rather disconcerting position of interviewing Rebecca Storm’s reflection in a mirror.  There is something very distancing about this, particularly as Storm, like all women I know, has a slightly glazed, open-mouthed and otherworldly expression when applying make-up.  Initially her answers too are slightly glazed, as though she had done this interview several times before, if not promoting this show then another.

As her hands move assuredly over a youthful face and her shoulder-length blond hair, her answers veer toward luvvy-ness and she often addresses the photographer rather than me, as if needing to keep the whole room entertained.

However, when the conversation switches to her role in Aspects and her voice, her tone also changes and Storm is revealed as a modest professional, a charming and unusual combination.  Her role is a challenging one; it is fairly soprano, but her voice is chesty (“like Evita’s”) and as all of the words in Aspects of Love are sung (as in an opera), some of the notes are in tricky combinations.  In addition her character, Rose Vibert, is more complex than your average musical character.

“I’m just trying to get the measure of her now.  Like myself, she’s an actress and in her 30s, and she finds herself with this younger guy which to a certain extent I can also relate to as I’ve had younger boyfriends myself.  She’s a strong woman yet she’s vulnerable as well.  So, apart from the note-bashing I’m also trying to get two or three dimensions to her.”

She warms when the topic of her 16-year-old daughter, who is playing the young version of Rose’s daughter in Aspects, arises.  “She’s a real Rebecca – I’m not.  I was in a band, the Rebecca Storm Band, when I had her.  I took the name as a stage name but her father wanted her to be called Rebecca Roberts.”

Although Storm was successful with this rock-’n’-roll band, her real fame and fortune came when she hit the musicals after Rebecca’s birth.  Impressively, the career she has built has included lead roles in Evita, Les Misérables and Chess as well as two gold discs for recordings and numerous sell-out concerts.

“I’ve been very lucky with parts; the first national tour of Evita just happened to come up as I was finishing Blood Brothers and it went on from there.  There’s not really enough strong roles for women, so you have to make the most of them as they come up.  For about eight years I was doing eight shows a week fairly solidly and during that time I was touring with Chess for 20 months.  My daughter was in boarding school in Hampshire and I missed her terribly – she was one of the reasons I packed it in the end.

“From a career point of view it’s fantastic and nobody’s complaining, but your life does go off kilter and you don’t really have a home life.  So now I really try and keep a balance.”

Back among fans in Ireland, with Aspects of Love looking good, her daughter with her, and the man in her life (“He’s a rock”) coming over from England for the opening night, she seems to have found that balance.

“I’ve got a home life and a love life and a career, which makes me very happy.  If it swings too far one way you can find yourself touring for 20 months and really being quite lonely.  But now, and I know it’s a sweeping statement, I’m really very happy.  Mind you, I should wait to see the reviews before saying that, shouldn’t I?”