Blood Brothers

Erm... no

Too young

Updated On: 5/16/12 at 05:07 AM

Uh-oh. Are we about to be bombarded by a ton of posts suggesting shows for the stars of SMASH?

I'm not saying immediately this minute. Give Smash a three year run. Hilty is 31, she could easily play the role in 5 years.

In the show, Mrs. Johnstone starts at around 25 and by the end of the show she's only about 45.

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Updated On: 5/16/12 at 10:01 AM

The role has been played by so many actresses throughout its run who have greatly ranged in age, from early thirties to sixties. Carole King was in her early fifties when she did it on Broadway; I believe Melanie Chisholm was 34 when she did it in London a few years ago. The late Stephanie Lawrence had just turned 40 when she took over the role in London and then was in her mid-forties when she did it on Broadway. I think it all comes down to how convincingly an actress can play the age range, regardless of her actual age.

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Mrs. Johnston had "7 hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due". She could be any age

Dream movie cast... Catherine Zeta Jones & Hugh Jackman.

Scripps, I love that show and I'm certain I'm not alone. However, as it deals with the English system of class and social structure, it has always resonated more with British audiences. Its been playing in the West End for years and had a relatively short run on Broadway.

Anyway, Hilty would be good in 10 years I'd say. I highly doubt McPhee could pull off the acting to make Mrs. J convincingly go crazy.

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Scripps, I see it as an anti-socialist musical hidden beneath a thin veneer of emotional blackmail and disguised as a musical.

Mrs. Johnstone is a woman who needs birth control. Obviously the government has failed her on that. She needs childcare and the government has failed her on that. Apparently she's spending her child subsidy checks on Marilyn Monroe movies.

The government takes great pains to relocate her to a new house where she has every advantage (except a job; none of these new houses can afford a maid). Yet her boys turn out on the wrong side of the law and her girls don't get much needed birth control.

The son she has given away to a capitalist family turns out to be an upstanding citizen who contributes to society.

Lesson: when you don't depend on government handouts, your life will be much better and you won't have to fantasize that your jailed son is like Marilyn Monroe.

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I'd like to see the expression on Willy Russell's face if he was told he'd written an anti-socialist musical.

Although Blood Brothers covers a twenty/thirty year period it feels as though it takes place entirely in the early 1980s and its real target was not Eddie but Mrs T.