Synopsis
Blood Brothers is a powerful British musical by Willy Russell that tells the story of twin brothers separated at birth — one raised in wealth, the other in poverty — who grow up unaware of each other’s existence. Set in Liverpool, the show explores themes of class, fate, and superstition as the boys’ lives intertwine in unexpected and ultimately tragic ways. Combining humour, heart, and social commentary, Blood Brothers features memorable songs such as “Marilyn Monroe” and “Tell Me It’s Not True,” making it one of the most enduring and emotionally charged musicals of the modern era.
Brian d’Arcy James’ broadway debut. As well as being in the ensemble Brian was the understudy for the lead role of Mickey, which he performed for a limited time while David Cassidy was delayed in joining the cast.
Playbill’s My Life in the Theatre
On 2 December 2025 Playbill released an interview with Brian on Youtube under their My Life in the Theatre playlist. Below is a transcript from the video about his time with Blood Brothers – you can watch it here.
“Blood Brothers was my first Broadway show, I did it in the Music Box Theatre, which is an extraordinary jewel of a theatre, no pun intended.
There’s so many memories that come forward here. Mostly the people, probably throughout this, I’m going to be talking about the people that made the experience, but the first thing that comes to my mind is my dear friend Sam Samuelson, who alerted me to the fact that there was an opening in the show when they were in Toronto.
Now, this is a show I knew because of my sister Anne. Anne had spent some time in London, and she saw this show in the 80s, and she said, Brian, you got to see the show. It’s a great show, you could do it – I was a lot younger then. So it made sense. So I knew the score because I had the score on a cassette tape that I played in my Honda Civic. And so when my buddy Sam got cast in this show, I was so excited because I knew somebody in it. An actor named Philip Lehl, was in the original production, and he was leaving to go do the Kentucky Cycle, which was going to be on Broadway. So they knew they had to fill that slot coming to Broadway sometime in the middle of the run, I think, of memory serves. Anyway, so Sam tipped me off to this. Sam is now a big, bigwig agent in Chicago, so he’s no longer acting. He’s representing people like myself. But he let me know that this was happening, so I was able to, you know, do what you have to do. Like I sent my resume and all that stuff to Pat McCorkle, who was the casting director who gave me my first Broadway show.
So yeah, that’s what strikes me is that, the precursor of that is, you know, my way into it was through Sam and through my sister.
But what was really interesting is that I was an understudy in that show. And I was there with the original British cast, Con O’Neill, and Mark Michael Hutchinson, who played The Brothers. And I was the understudy for Mickey, which is the role that Con played. To this day, one of the nicest things I’ve ever received in the theatre was when Con left the show, he gave me – and he’d been with it for a long time, I think he had done it on the West End before it came here. But he gave me his original script with all the notes that he had in it, which I thought was an extraordinary gesture because that is, um, I don’t know, that’s this, I just always was so touched by that. So thanks, Con. That was, I cherish that. I still have that. It’s a really amazing thing that you did.
What made this unforgettable experience, this show, an unforgettable experience for me was that I was the Mickey understudy, and when Con and Mark left, David Cassidy and Sean Cassidy came into the show to play the two leads. Sean was there to begin that change over time, but David was delayed for some reason, he was probably otherwise engaged. So there was a week or two, where I was actually playing the part of Mickey with Sean Cassidy, much to the delight of myself and family and friends, much to the chagrin of a lot of people who wanted to see David Cassidy. But Sean Cassidy remains a friend and a great supporter, and it was really, really great to kind of have that chance to take on a leading role, and have more than one, you know, usually understudies have, like, a one stop shop and they get to either fail or succeed, you know, in that, in that little moment. But I had a good couple of weeks where I got to do that.
So that was, that was an extraordinary experience. Yeah, I love that. I love that show so much. Tell me it’s not true.”