Oliver

~~When doing Oliver! you need a great bunch of kids and these were just that. They were very enthusiastic & constantly interacting with each other and all the characters on the stage. They brought to life every scene they were in. Dodger (Harry Cheyette) was particularly cheeky with great stage presence and Oliver (Edward Grayson-Footitt) had a beautiful singing voice.  Not to be out done by the children, the adults were also full of life, each one of them playing their part in the full company scenes.
There were also some notable performances from the adults including Bill Sykes (Andrew Darksus) & Noah (Scott Walker). Lloyd Hawkins was an excellent Fagin throughout whilst Graham Berridge as Mr Brownlow gave a wonderfully controlled performance. However, it was Katie Gledhill who gave us an outstanding portrayal of Nancy. Katie worked in all the comedy with the children but then was able to bring us all down to earth with her scenes with Bill & Fagin. Her rendition of ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ was powerfully emotional and visually beautiful standing amongst the set uprights.
The set was indeed a marvel of engineering designed by Mick Hagen & Terry Pearson and superbly built by the Acorn technical team giving us lots of levels and nooks to do different scenes in. Costumes, Lighting and Sound were all good adding to the production overall.
Brady did a fantastic job with the music, balancing the sound and vocals, which isn’t easy when the orchestra are on floor level in front of the stage. The choreography by Kristi was really good and pitched just right to accommodate the space available. This sold out production of Oliver! was excellently directed by Andrea giving us such a visual treat, congratulations to everyone involved.

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