Oliver!

“Please sir can we have some more” sums up this production of Oliver!It was a real joy to watch such a great performance as this.The set was original and very adaptable and created the atmosphere needed for this musical. I feel the lighting in this show was top notch and really helped get the atmosphere across in every scene.The opening number “Food glorious food “was sung with gusto and gave the show a great start. The 20 children from this performance were fantastic and gave it everything they had.The casting in my view was perfection every character played and sung beautifully and seemed to be tailor made for the part Mr Sowerberry (Jack Marshall) gave a good performance and I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of Mrs Sowerberry (Christine Jarrett) with her typical browbeating of her poor husband. Well done.Fagin is a very well-known and great part to do and in this instance Fagin was performed by Jason Baker who is only 19 years old, when I saw this in the programme I did sit there and think how is someone so young going to pull off such a complex character but he did the part fantastically with great charisma, along with the singing, it was a wonderful portrayal. Nancy played by Neala Holland was outstanding probably one of the best Nancy’s I have seen ever (I have seen Oliver many times) she gave a superb performance with great feeling and light and shade that is required along with the show stopper “As long as he needs me “ which gave myself and my guest shivers it was sung as good as any west end performer. Well Done.Bet played by Victoria Pemble supported Nancy wonderfully she had a great singing voice and was a good mover. Her acting in the song ‘My name’ was fantastic.As for Bill Sykes, what a good piece of acting the voice along with the scariness was enough to clear the audience let alone the pub if we didn’t know it was a show! “My Name” was sung again with perfection. Yet again this part was played by a young lad called Daniel Stocking and was a great performance all round.The Artful Dodger (Oliver Holden) looked the part and was a really great part in the show.Oliver (Sam Loft) sung and acted well. A part that I could clearly see he enjoyed and he performed with great aplomb and confidence, especially as the young actor is still at primary school. Well done. He should enjoy many more years on the stage.Something for the children to work on in my opinion would be their diction at time some words were lost, but this is something that will come with age.The chorus did a great job, costumes looked good, the dancers looked good and danced well especially in “Oom- pah-pah. I really liked the way ‘Who will buy’ was set with a singer and a dancer or two for each item they were selling it gave a really nice effect.I also really liked the use of the auditiorium and coming in from the sides. The stage crew did a fantastic job as there is no wing space at this theatre. The scene changes were smooth and well rehearsed.The Orchestra did extremely well. A very good sound!It was also lovely to see a an actual dog on stage BB was fantastic as Bullseye when recently in a lot of productions of Oliver it is a part that has been left out.My final well done goes to the production team Gwyneth T loft (Director) Diana Whybrow (musical director) and Lucy Tamuleicius (choreographer) you had obviously all worked hard and worked well as a team. The show was spectacular.I look forward to seeing more of this companies work in the future.

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