Oliver

It was a pleasure to attend one of the dress rehearsals at Suttons Green Hut Theatre Company, and to present some Long Service Awards during this their 90th Anniversary Year.

This show always pleases with well-known tunes, familiar characters and plenty of scope to utilize children.  Whilst not always keeping with tradition, a mix of girls and boys made up Fagin’s Gang and this worked really well in this production.

Every single member of the cast had good characterisation and created the chapters of the story as we followed Oliver from Workhouse, to Undertakers, to Fagin’s Den and finally into the Brownlow household.

In the title role of Oliver Twist was Gianluca Jennings who gave a lovely performance.  His diction was loud and clear, and he had a beautiful singing voice.  His performance of “Where is Love” was very moving.

Nancy’s (Emma-Jayne Byers) rendition of 'As Long As He Needs Me', showed passion and understanding of the number.  She had particularly good interaction with Fagin’s gang throughout the production too – and along with Bet (Emma Victoria Smith) she demonstrated her extensive musical theatre experience leading the number “I’d Do Anything”.

All principal characters were well played and there was humour in abundance from Mr Bumble (Ray Waters) and Widow Corney (Alison Waters). 

I particularly liked the Undertakers Parlour scene where Mr and Mrs Sowerberry (expertly played by Philip Smith and Charlotte Harrison) really brought out the humour of the whole piece, and moved through the scene at such a swift pace.

Bill Sikes (Kevin Davies) was played in a less menacing way than I have seen previously, but his portrayal still made my spine tingle during his altercation with Nancy in Act 2.

Fagin (Vincent Rolfe) displayed great rapport with The Artful Dodger (Alex Volpe), and the rest of his “gang” throughout the musical numbers “Pick a Pocket or Two” & “Be Back Soon”.

This was a great evening’s entertainment where everyone on stage clearly put their heart and soul into the performance.

Special mention must go to MD, David Weale – who kept the score going at a great pace, and it was a joy to hear Jane Dobson playing the violin throughout.  It was particularly “haunting” during Fagin’s “Reviewing The Situation”.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

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