Oliver!

Most people have seen Oliver! It’s for me a typical old style musical where the songs don’t always fit the dark nature of Dickens story but we are so familiar with them we accept them which glosses over the horror of Victorian London.

Many of us have probably performed in it at some stage of our Musical Theatre life but never before I have experienced an Oliver such as this!!

The sets worked fabulously well and every scene change happened seamlessly into the next. The props were wonderful and the costumes were magnificent. The lighting plot perfectly suited every scene change.

The choreography was beautiful with some stunning ballet moves among big chorus numbers. The cast worked really hard to make every dance move and song fit the scene which had just been played out. The orphans and Fagin’s gang acted the parts and sang with some great harmonies which had been drilled well by Simon Pickup, the MD.

There was not one weak link in the cast including the chorus who all acted, sang and danced their socks off. The Sowerberrys (played by Richard Hall, Sam Bates and Emily Williams) and Noah (George Griffiths) all suited their roles and sang “That’s Your Funeral” with super diction to enhance the comedy in these parts.

Mr Brownlow, Dr Grimwig and Mrs Bedwin (played respectively by Brent Rawstron, Andrew Sloman and Doreen Firth) played well together and had some very touching and also in the part of Dr Grimwig some very amusing scenes.

Jon Crebbin and Lisa Kay as Mr Bumble and Mrs Corney gave us some of the best comedy scenes with both having fantastic vocals. Jordanne Woodward who played Bet worked well in all her scenes and had great vocals on “I’d Do Anything”.

Matthew McGreavy was excellent as the Artful Dodger. This young man has so much stage presence and acted well with the leads, never being overshadowed by them. Liam Gartland put in a lovely performance as Oliver again never being overawed or frightened to interact with the adult actors. His “Where is Love” bought a little tear to my eye.

I have seen many actors play Bill Sykes and for me Billy Pretsel has set the bar incredibly high for anyone to follow. With fabulous direction and a complete deranged style to the character he scared me every time he was on stage. The opening scene he was in with the back lighting was very chilling. Brilliant acting Billy and great direction John.

I absolutely loved Dawn Leigh as Nancy. Again a lot harder and feistier than I have seen it played in the past but with gorgeous dance moves and stunning vocals. “As Long as he Needs Me” was vocally beautiful but the acting and direction of starting this number from the floor with her back to the audience was heart wrenching. Dawn was fantastic on “Oom Pah Pah” and “I’d Do Anything” both singing and dancing her way around the stage with flair. Simply Fabulous Dawn.

This show is totally dependent on casting an enigmatic Fagin and Congress succeeded in the task by the bucketful. Paul Allison was totally brilliant as Fagin. Also the costumers, make up and wig team must be congratulated as I spent the first 2 minutes convincing myself it was or wasn’t Paul! I loved the way the character was played with a darker side than you normally see but with some lovely comedy moments thrown in. More often than not this role can become a bit pantomimish but not here and Paul’s scenes in his den both with his gang and on his own were compelling to watch with great vocals.

The Director’s vision on this was fantastic, playing it so the musical numbers weren’t at odds with the darkness of this classic tale but rather complemented it enhancing the drama elements of this show. A simply stunning classic tale reaching new standards of acting, singing and dancing, with not a weak link on or off stage. Well done to you all.

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