Russell performed the role of 'Mickie' in the Willy Russell musical "Blood Brothers" with Peter Cousens and Chrissie Amphlett at the Seymour Centre in Sydney in 1988.

Russell was fired from the show because of an altercation with Peter Cousens. George Ogilvie had seen his performance in Blood Brothers and offered him a role in the movie 'The Crossing', where he met Danielle Spencer.

The Daily Mail (UK)
11/24/01 -- A VERY SENSITIVE SEXUAL PREDATOR - by Angela Mollard

"There's no question Russell is volatile, but the genius is there on the screen." Had he not been so talented, Crowe's volatility would have blown him into obscurity by now. In 1988, he was fired from his "break-of-a-lifetime" role in the Sydney stage production of Blood Brothers after head-butting and breaking the nose of his co-star, Peter Cousins.

*************************

The Daily Mail (UK)
11/27/01
Part III -- A VERY SENSITIVE SEXUAL PREDATOR - by Angela Mollard

Night after night it was the same. Russell Crowe staring in the hit musical Blood Brothers, would raise the gun and aim in the direction of his co-star Peter Cousens.

A shot would explode through the silent theatre and Cousens would crumple to the floor. Then another shot and Crowe would fall, the gun ricocheting out of his hand in the direction of Cousens.

"Russell never controlled the gun and it always hit me," says Peter Cousens, recalling the 1988 production in Sydney.

Like the brothers they played, Cousens and Crowe could not have been more different. For the 24-year-old untrained yet aspiring Crowe the show was the break of a lifetime. Yet he bristled at sharing the stage with a refined, disciplined, drama-school graduate with ten years' experience.

"We were at loggerheads from the start," recalls Cousens. "He was terrific but erratic. He was all over the stage and when he kicked a chair it sometimes flew into the audience.

"One Friday night, when the gun landed on me yet again, I blew my top, marched into his dressing room and called him an arrogant amateur. He tried to punch me but the guys in the dressing room held him back. He was hurling abuse and finally he broke free and head butted me in the face. The b*****d had broken my nose."

The director demanded each actor apologise in writing to the other. Cousens, who'd had to attend his baby daughter's christening with a throbbing nose and two black eyes, penned a conciliatory note. The apology from Crowe never came - and by the end of the weekend he'd been fired.

"In the theatre drinking spots everyone was talking about this New Zealand actor who'd never work again," says Cousens. "They were laughing and saying; "Well, that's the last we'll ever see of him.""

Others might have slid shamefully back into anonymity. But not Russell Crowe. Ambition was burning holes in him and, as we shall see, he was not the sort to give up.

****************************************

Rough Cut Q & As LA Confidential’s Russell Crowe gets scruffy, gruff and scatty.
Published September 18, 1997

"I was offered the role of Mickey in Blood Brothers. It’s a unique piece because it is the most depressing musical ever written for the theatre...the big dance number in the middle is about unemployment."

************************************

Sun Herald -- HILARIOUS 'BROTHERS' ARE TRAGIC
Author: Mick Barnes
Date: 10 Sep 1988

Blood Brothers is the Willy (Educating Rita) Russell musical, the one this likely Liverpoollad, a school leaver at 15, had the effrontery to write all lyrics, book and music for, then turn into a London success.

It's taken a few years to reach Australia, undoubtedly because it is different. This production has its faults, including an overlong first act, but after an emotional opening night I say: Vive la difference!

Russell's story, borrowed from Greek mythology and embellished, of two brothers separated at birth but irresistibly and tragically drawn to each other to become "blood brothers" is intensely moving, very funny in places, full of insight and compassion for the underdog and leads insistently to a devastating climax.

Russell's clear vision of England's class system isn't coloured by sermonising. It is a fact of life. He draws it with the sure hand of experience.

As Mickey, the kid of the slums sinks into that great morass of hopelessness and finally desperation, twin brother Eddie, given the benefit of class, rises inevitably.

A Narrator (played with chilling menace by Bob Baines) provides an ever-present sense of foreboding, heightened by a score with overtones of impending disaster.

Why is Blood Brothers so different? It's more narrative in style (at fault at the start but a bonus as it develops) than other musicals. It puts an extraordinary plot, quite naturally, into mundane surroundings. It relieves brooding tragedy with some incidents of rare comedy - the scenes with Peter Cousens and Russell Crowe as seven-year-old twins from opposite sides of the track are hilarious.

This is by no means a flawless production. Zoe Carides distinguishes herself with an engrossing performance as Linda, Mickey's childhood friend and later wife. But it is an uneven cast.

Which brings us to singing star turned actress Chris Amphlett. Does casting her as Mrs Johnstone, mother of the twins and central figure in the story add or take away from this unusual musical?

The answer also is a mixed one. She doesn't yet have the acting skills to exploit fully the complexities of the role, but she sings with compelling emotional impact.

This is a musical play in which emotion is the keynote, so perhaps she's a winner on the balance.

****************************

Daily Telegraph: Murmurs... February 28, 2005 -- ROCK chick Chrissie Amphlett has jetted home to Australia with her pen poised. Confidential hears the frontwoman for The Divinyls flew in from New York this week and is about to get stuck into writing her biography. That's one tome that would certainly make for interesting reading.

Brief mention in this interview with Parkinson in February 2002