Oliver! Tickets:99 recommendations
Sub-sections
About Oliver!
Lionel Bart's classic musical, starring Rowan Atkinson until 18 July
Lionel Bart’s Oliver! was first staged in the West End in 1960 and was an instant success. Playing at the New Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre, home to Avenue Q), Oliver! enjoyed a long run and introduced the British public to little known actors who went on to have enormous success as adults.
Fagin was played by Ron Moody who immortalised the role in Carol Reed’s 1968 movie, and the small comic role of Mr Sowerberry was played by Barry Humphries. Notably included the number of young boys who took on the title role were Blackadder’s Tony Robinson, Genesis’ Phil Collins and the Monkees’ teen idol Davy Jones.
Oliver! is loosely based on Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel Oliver Twist. As with many literary adaptations in musical theatre, many changes were made to tie loose ends up more quickly and to make the content more family friendly. A key change was the portrayal of Fagin on stage as a comic character rather than as the book’s villain.
Although this was clearly a welcome change for audiences, creating a couple of classic songs in ‘You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two’ and ‘Reviewing The Situation’, the show came under some criticism for making light of Jewish stereotypes, despite Lionel Bart himself and a number of actors in the show’s lead roles (including Ron Moody) being Jewish.
This production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is the second revival to be staged in the West End. A hugely successful production began at the London Palladium in 1994 with Jonathan Pryce as Fagin. Like the original, this version of Oliver! contained some famous names playing the title role, including S Club’s Jon Lee and McFly’s Tom Fletcher.
The show proved as popular as it had originally and ran at the Palladium for over three years. Oliver! has also had great international success, with tours of Asia, Australasia and two of the US, and two Broadway productions, in 1963 and 1984.
This new production stars the winners of the BBC’s talent search I’d Do Anything, with the vivacious Jodie Prenger as Nancy* and Harry Stott and Gwion Jones alternating the title role with James Donaghey and Francesco Piancentini-Smith. British TV legend Rowan Atkinson has received unanimous praise as Fagin, while Torchwood’s Burn Gorman is a menacing Bill Sykes.
*Please note that Rowan Atkinson is currently scheduled to appear as Fagin until 18 July 2009. From 20 July 2009, the role of Fagin will be played by Omid Djalili. Jodie Prenger does not perform on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. At these performances, the role of Nancy is played by Tamsin Carroll.
Reviews
Daily Mail
Consider youself a musical star, Mr Bean
Drury Lane has known more tuneful musical stars in its long history, but the grand old temple of dreams can seldom have played host to one with such a God-given gift for comedy.
Rowan Atkinson, playing that warped scoutmaster Fagin, was the eyebrow-wriggling, funnywalking, laugh-wringing supremo on Wednesday night when Lionel Bart's wonderful musical opened at the Theatre Royal.
But he is not the only rocket of the night. Jodie Prenger, who won the part of the doomed, decent Nancy in a primetime BBC1 talent show, stands up to the test like a sturdy galleon. She swings her big hips and heaves her all into the role.
The Times
Dickens of a revival for Rowan Atkinson who plays Fagin as Mr Bean with menace
All credit to Atkinson for giving Fagin at least as much menace as Jonathan Pryce and Robert Lindsay, who were superlative in Sam Mendes’s revival of the musical 14 years ago. True, he gratuitously reassures the audience by giving them the odd reminder of his prime claim to fame. He stages a goofy, jokey battle between stolen pearls and his beloved tiara and he even cuddles an antique teddy. But, praise be, he then casually chucks the fluffy bear into a furnace and reverts to being what he unsentimentally is most of the time: not an old Bean but an infinitely creepy criminal with lank hair, a yellow face and a sinister, silvery glint in his eyes.
The Telegraph
With this latest revival, which has already broken box office records with the help of priceless free publicity from the BBC's I'd Do Anything talent show, those involved are once again insisting that this will be a dark Oliver!, a dramatic Oliver! an Oliver when you feel the dirt under the characters fingernails.
Bah, humbug! If that were the case would your face break into a huge grin of pleasure when in the opening number dozens and dozens of supposedly half-starved workhouse children take to the stage? No, you would feel pity and horror. But because they are superbly choreographed, look so sweet and are singing Bart's witty and splendidly catchy Food Glorious Food one experiences only pleasure.
