Oliver

Oliver is one of the most well known of British musicals with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart and is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. It tells the story of a plucky orphan, Oliver, who after being sold to an undertaker runs away and joins a group of boys who are trained as pickpockets by an elderly mentor.

The opening scene takes place in the workhouse with the orphans singing ‘Food Glorious Food’ only to be greeted with their usual sparse helping of gruel. The children playing the orphans and later becoming part of Fagin’s gang were so confident and focused. 

On the day that I attended this production Daniel Wylie played Oliver and Gregor Paterson played Artful Dodger. These two young men are certainly very talented in both singing and acting. Daniel singing ‘Where is Love’ was a showstopper. Gregor was equally talented, cheeky and convincing, giving all he could to the wonderful part of Dodger.

Adrian Lonsdale really tried to portray the appearance and voice quality of the bombastic and strident Mr Bumble opposite Claire Rioch as Widow Corney who was more than a match for him with an impressive performance, great vocals and excellent comedy timing. 

Mr and Mrs Sowerbury played by Billy Naismith and Gwen Teppett demonstrated credible characterisation as this very odd couple and the slapstick comedy scene was perfectly staged. Julia Wojton was a fabulous Charlotte and cast well opposite Jonah Phillipson-Masters as Noah Claypole who did a super job being the annoying, bullying character.

Nancy was played by Eilidh Robertson who gave a warm performance especially with the children, I enjoyed her powerful rendition of Oom-Pah-Pah’ and ‘It’s a Fine Life” well supported by Carys Morgan as Bet. 

Oliver Stirling as Bill Sykes came across as thoroughly unpleasant.

Marcus Wylie was confident as Fagin with the right mix of comedy and pathos to command the stage. His songs both vocally and visually were well delivered, and he was mesmerising to watch with a lovely rapport between him and his gang.

Poppy Hardie was a lovely mischievous Charley Bates. Craig Nicoll playing a very funny Dr Grimwig. Derek Murray was a joy to watch as nice kind Mr. Brownlow and Ruth McKay as Mrs Bedwin was warm and authentic.

I loved the imaginatively designed set on this production which remained static throughout but excellently stage managed with subtle changes for each scene of which there are many, enhanced by superb effective costumes depicting the period and some clever lighting. 

The choreography had energy and enthusiasm with the numbers drilled to perfection. Stuart Whyte executing an incredible job with such a large group of people. And it all sounded great under the watchful ear of Shona Morgan.The chorus worked hard on establishing characters and the childrens ensemble were fabulous and so well drilled in their movement. Everyone involved both onstage and backstage should be commended for a great evening’s entertainment.

This was a good production of one of my favourite musicals. Well Done TADAMS.

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