AS the fellow critic sitting next to me said surveying the audience on their feet and their ecstatic prolonged applause: “It always works.”

And she’s right. Willy Russell’s musical has been around for 28 years, but its theatrical and emotional punch remains undimmed because it is about something everybody has (or has lost) – family.

There’s also a strong element of class struggle in this Liverpool-set show about twins separated at birth. One suffers a poor background, the other a privileged upbringing. But a blood-brother friendship forged in childhood brings them together again with tragic results.

The production, directed by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright, is as fresh as ever. This time, it’s Maureen Nolan singing her heart out as single mother-ofmany Mrs Johnstone, who makes a decision – to give away one of her new born twins or see the rest of her brood taken into care – that she lives to regret.

Much of the appeal of the show is having adults play twins Mickey and Eddie from short trousers to manhood.

Sean Jones (an absolute hoot as uncouth Mickey, who makes spitting an art) and Mark Hutchinson (well-mannered Eddie) both return to the roles and switch convincingly from light-hearted playing games to matters of life and death.

And as always, even though you may know what’s coming, the tear-soaked finale is as shocking as ever.

  • Until Saturday. Box office 0844-8713024 and online atgtickets.com/york Steve Pratt