Oliver!

This was a delightful production of this well loved musical. Twenty children opened the show with an enthusiastic ‘Food Glorious Food‘ and were kept firmly in their places by the bombastic Mr.Bumble (Murray Mackay) and the flirtatious, saucy Widow Corney (Gail Crawford) whose antics and innuendo in ‘I Shall Scream’ were most amusing.

 Young Oliver (James Ronan on the night I attended) performed and sang very well indeed captivating the audience with ‘Where Is Love’ almost bringing a tear to the eyes of the audience as well as his own. He is sold off to the somewhat sinister Mr. and Mrs Sowerberry (Chris Eden and Ali Shearman Jones) and causes havoc in their funeral parlour. Eventually managing to escape from their clutches, he meets up with a gang led by the crafty Artful Dodger (Jack Williamson) who gave a most confident, cheeky performance full of vitality. Fagan’s gang were a mischievous bunch who put heart and soul into their singing and choreography and were obviously having a great deal of fun while helping each other out.

Unfortunately David Legge who was cast as Fagin had to drop out two weeks before opening night ,but knowing that ‘the show must go on’ Gordon Roberts stepped into the breach and did a wonderful job as Fagin. An experienced player with a booming bass voice he appeared quite at ease in the part conveying the character in a humorous manner with his little asides and he most certainly had the audience on his side. Martine McCluskie was a rough but sexy Nancy whose powerful voice was well suited to the popular ‘As Long As He Needs Me’. Bett her friend was also well characterised by Gael Curran. Liam Lannon was a suitably brutal Bill Sykes with his threatening actions and grimacing facial expressions. All of the other named principals contributed well to the production.

One of the most impressive aspects of this production was how such a large cast coped on such a small stage. Using the auditorium for the chase and when Oliver was being sold worked very well. With an open stage the whole time, the cast made very good use of the split levels and changed the scenes smoothly by simply moving pieces of furniture, changing  pictures on the back wall and by bringing on and taking off the various images of, for example, Fagins fireplace, the pot of gruel and ,my favourite, birdie.The projected black and white images of Victorian London on the side wall also enhanced a simple but cleverly designed set.

Nearly all of the music in ‘Oliver’ is well known and the company did it proud. Each number was sung with conviction with a more than competent chorus who let their hair down both vocally and with the choreography in ‘Consider Yourself’ and ‘Oom Pah Pah’. The solo singers in ‘Who Will Buy’ all had lovely voices which blended well together.

Congratulations to all on stage, the orchestra and all back stage who made this such an enjoyable, well costumed production which delighted the audience and had as all wanting more .The tumultuous applause was well deserved.

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