Oliver

Bringing Charles Dickens’ novel to life, Lionel Bart’s Oliver! takes audiences on an adventure through Victorian England. Oliver moves from workhouse, to street gang, to a life of luxury and back to working for Fagin and Bill Sykes again. With timeless songs like “As Long as He Needs Me,” “Food, Glorious Food,” and “Where is Love,” Oliver! is a musical classic.

Unfortunately, due to breakdown on the motorway we arrived late and just in time to hear Oliver (Wilf Dight) sing “Where is Love” which he sang with great felling for one so young. Throughout the show he had that little bit of fight in his character which is all too often missing from Oliver and this combined with his lovely voice give us a first class performance.  The Artful Dodger (Harrison France) was every bit the leader of Fagin’s gang, he had a great relationship with Oliver and that cocky charm needed to make this character work.

The chorus singing and harmonies were very good, unfortunately, there were several problems with the microphones and we lost some of the chorus singing as they turned up stage. There was also a problem with entrances and mics not being live, such a shame when so much hard work had been put into producing the quality sound heard in many of the numbers.

“Who will buy” was brilliantly sung by Emma Walker (Rose seller), Hannah Papadopoulos (Milkmaid), Anna Walton (Strawberry seller) and Bradley Smith (Knife grinder) great harmonies, well balanced and a definite highlight.

It was great to see such a large number of children in Fagin’s gang and with a wide age range, the little ones being especially appealing. The gang were excellent at acting and reacting to the dialogue as well as singing each of their songs. The enjoyment and fun they were having was evident throughout their numbers but especially in “Pick a pocket or two”.

Both Nancy (Tandie Stahl ) and Bet (Chloe Ravenscroft) were well played and they worked well in “I’d do anything” with Fagin’s Gang.  Tandie has a lovely voice and gave good renditions of “As long as he needs me” and ‘It’s a Fine Life’ although the speed of these numbers, as with others in the show, were a little fast and I would have liked the MD to have given her more freedom to add even more expression and emotion to what was beautiful singing.

Mr. Bumble (Peter Johnson) and Widow Corney (Susan Dodd) were expertly played for all their comedic value with Peter having a great presence and comic timing every time he came on stage. We were so upset to have missed “I shall Scream” as having seen the way they worked in act two I am sure this would have been a great number.

The supporting roles of Mr. Brownlow (Mike Finnigan), Mrs. Bewdin (Joyce Walker), and the bumbling Dr Grimwig (Nick Horsley) were all well performed and contributed well to the story.

Bill Sykes was played in a suitable threatening and menacing manor by Lee Edwards. It was great to see that he had his dog, Bullseye (Patch), with him. Robert Earl brought some lovely touches to Fagin, it was obvious that he had a great rapport with the children and captured both the comedy and caring attitude needed for the role.

The musical numbers were enhanced by the effective choreography of Fiona Walker, there was great use of the stage and well styled movements to match the varying abilities of the cast. Pace is all important in a musical but I felt that Musical Director, Treona Holden just pushed this a little too far with some numbers feeling rushed. I also felt that the micing of some of the solo instruments in the band were too loud especially the violin in “Reviewing the situation” which should be almost a duet between Fagin and the violin. However, Treona had obviously work hard on the harmonies which stood out all through the performance. Sheryl Haydock-Howorth as Director captured lots of the humor and warmth in the dialogue and the production flowed very well with an impressive set that allowed for rotating and moving staircases to create the different scenes.  

You can tell when a cast have jelled well together, are having fun and enjoying every minute of the performance and this came across to the audience. Apologies to all who we missed at the beginning of the show and therefore not mentioned in the review. Thank you for your welcome, hospitality and a great night’s entertainment. We look forward to seeing you again soon. 

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