Viv Hardwick discovers that Lyn Paul is celebrating 20 years as working class musical heroine Mrs Johnstone

SOME musicals are in the blood and not just in the title. Lyn Paul should know, after being voted the “undisputed Mrs Johnstone of all time” by fans of Blood Brothers, and been a regular headline star in the show for the past 20 years.

“I’m just thrilled that I’m still working at my age. I’m very grateful to Bill Kenwright (the impresario who has produced the show since 1987) for casting me again as Mrs J, because normally she isn’t in her late 60s. I’m terribly grateful he’s given me the opportunity to keep playing this role... and I absolutely love it,” says Paul.

“It was so flattering to be voted the most popular Mrs J and, if it’s true, that’s really nice,” she adds.

Willy Russell created the 1960s Liverpool-set working class musical as a school play in 1982 and it went on to become a star vehicle for Barbara Dickson and a West End award-winner. The tale of a desperately poor single mother of seven, who agrees to give away one of the twins she’s expecting, continues to win fans. Eddie moves into a wealthy family and brother Mickey struggles in poverty.

Paul admits that, approaching 40, she didn’t consider herself up to the task of playing Mrs J. “When I first went to see it I thought, ‘How on earth are grown men going to play the children in this show?’ It seemed ridiculous. But I was absolutely mesmerised and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I said to my husband, ‘One day I’d love to play Mrs J’. Seven years later I met Carl Wayne of The Move and he asked me why I didn’t audition. I told him that I’d never acted and couldn’t do it. I told my mum and she said, ‘Why don’t you write to Bill Kenwright?’ So I did. A letter or reply came in the return post and three weeks later I was on stage waiting to rehearse. It was baptism of fire basically.”

Long-suffering Mrs Johnstone’s roller-coaster ride of emotion has captured the attention of singers like Kiki Dee, Stephanie Lawrence, Clodagh Rodgers, four of the Nolan sisters, Melanie Chisholm, Marti Webb, Niki Evans, Helen Reddy, Carole King and Petula Clark. Paul, who was born Lynda Susan Belcher, says of going through the plot’s tears and torments: “You have to really delve deep and think about things that you don’t really want to think about, but it just happens because the musical is so well-written, produced and directed. It sounds ridiculous, but it is so easy to become Mrs Johnstone,” says Paul.

She’s well aware of the era of Mrs J because she comes from Manchester, down the road from the play’s setting. “I came from a working class family on a council estate and everything about Mrs J I can relate to. I experienced some pretty tough times, so I knew exactly what was going on within the show. I found it amazing that Willy Russell could write something like this

“We’ve had letters such as a woman whose son had been in prison and she said she’d never seen anything relating to how it really was for him, so sparse and deep. We hear from people who can’t have children, and are trying IVF, because there is something in Blood Brothers that makes people say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve gone through that’.”

One of the famous scenes in the show involves unexpected gunshots and tragedy. Paul jokes that it was a shock for her first time and over the 20 years she’s been involved in the show, a lot of the cast wear earplugs.

“Those that don’t, like me, suddenly found that our hearing had become impaired,” she jokes.

Paul reveals that joint directors Kenwright and Bob Tomson focus on creating a team spirit for the Blood Brothers cast. “We just had a girls’ night in Swindon at my apartment and then we’re having a games night for the whole cast. When you’re on tour you have to do anything to amuse yourselves,” she says. “The fact that we’re a close company is down to Bill and Bob.”

Paul doesn’t mind the fact that she’s never been nominated for an award. “All I’m doing is earning a living and paying the bills,” says the singer, who first found fame with The New Seekers in the 1970s and was featured vocalist on the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest entry You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me, which finished second.

While Blood Brothers has been lucrative, Paul has also kept busy in other areas of entertainment. “I haven’t been in every show for 20 years. I came out for three years and did other shows like Footloose, the Boy George musical Taboo and Yusaf Islam’s Moonshadow. “I’ve also done Emmerdale, Doctors and Holby City on TV. I always said to Bill if he ever wanted me to come back I would because he’d given me a new career,” she says.

As a result, Paul was the choice for the finale performance of Blood Brothers, when its West End run came to an end in October 2012. “I think I’m lucky enough to say that I am the one that Bill Kenwright trusts the most with the role. I know when I first got the part, Bill said, ‘This will lead you to television’. He said this is the only musical where the actors move from stage to TV. Look at Sarah Lancashire who played Linda (Eddie and Mickey’s love interest). Con O’Neill is now in Emmerdal and others have found great careers.”

One ritual at the end of each run is something that Paul wants to avoid. “I usually get ill. Most of the cast have colds or coughs because you fight off these things during the run. When the tour ends I think you’ll find other actors saying exactly the same thing.”

  • Blood Brothers, Monday, March 13 to Saturday, March 18, Newcastle Theatre Royal, 08448-112121 or theatreroyal.co.uk