A Tribute to The Blues Brothers Live – The Lowry, Salford
Reviewer: Paul Downham
The Public Reviews Rating: 
Just as the Illinois State Police couldn’t stop Jake and Elwood performing on stage, nor could the fire alarm at The Lowry tonight which delayed the start of the show by 10 minutes!
There have been a number of tribute shows featuring The Blues Brothers over the years but you may be surprised on leaving the theatre that your lasting memory is that of the band and the supporting cast in this particular production. 11 members of the supporting company shine brighter than the brothers themselves.
Once up and running the audience are treated to the fast paced energy associated with Blues Brothers performances belting out all the well loved songs including Sweet Home Chicago and Flip, Flop Fly to name but two. Out of the brothers, Elwood Blues was is more energetic in his performance and never stops dancing throughout the show other than to expertly play the harmonica to the delight of the audience, many of whom were wearing regulation dark sunglasses.
As alluded to earlier the stars of the show are the fantastic band and supporting singers whom as well as providing backing vocals, step up centre stage and provide the true highlights of the evening that include ‘Minnie the Moocher’ and ‘Think’ gaining easily the loudest cheers of the night.
The first half of the show seems to end rather abruptly when the entire cast depart the stage and the house lights came up leaving many wondering if it is the interval or the end of the performance. The second half of the show is painfully short at a little over half an hour and seems more like an encore to the first half however, this does not deter the majority of the audience remaining on their feet dancing until the last note sounded.
Overall this is a good show featuring some very talented individuals and with a little more polish has the potential to last on the road.
Reviewed on 20th September
A Tribute to The Blues Brothers Live – The Lowry, Salford,Tags: Blues Brothers, Lowry, Music, Musical, Salford
11:41 pm on September 22nd, 2012
I was really looking forwards to this show. I love the blues brothers, I had my hat on and paid 3 pounds for some cheep glasses to get in the mood and just for fun. It’s was 10 mins late but that didn’t matter because the suspense was exciting. When me and my girlfriend sat down the stage looked really good and I was singing soul man then the lights went down the band walkend in stage and they started to play, this was when my night went down hill. The band where clearly talented and played really well but the sound let them down massively! The bass guitar – the back bone of all songs was played through an amp that was miked up????????? WTF!!!! It had no punch to it At all and was really faint! The guitarist was very good but looked like he was from oasis with hs les Paul eppiphone sunburst guitar. Not very blues brothers but that wasn’t the biggest problem it was what he was wearing he looked like he come straight out of a uni bar. Then the blues brothers their selves Elwood was good energetic but did not engage the audience, his harmonica skills where really good but the whole package was forced and unbelievable. The other brother too fat and could not sing. When he fell over for comedy value I totally give up trying to enjoy myself.
Overall the sound guy was terrible the show relied on gimmicks rather than showman ship and I we walked out 50 mins in…………
A real disappointment……..