News
Oliver! Previewing the situation...
Posted by Jack on Friday 5th December 2008 at 11:14AM
| Cameron Mackintosh’s upcoming production of Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane will be composer Lionel Bart’s vision on a grand scale. Before he died in 1999, he told Cameron Mackintosh that his greatest regret was never having seen Oliver! staged at Drury Lane, and less than two weeks before performances begin, his dream is really coming together. UK Tickets got a sneaky glimpse at the set for this new production yesterday and the epic scale of the show is already evident. | |
| Making full use of the depth of the Drury Lane’s stage, the vast space is going to look far from sparse as the cast of over eighty performers fill it every night. There is also a walkway around the orchestra pit, similar to that at the London Palladium but not as high. Each night, the cast will include one of three alternating companies of fifty children (yup, that’s 150 kids the producers have to manage) who appear from all over the theatre during the show’s opener, as well as thirty-two adults, not to mention a twenty-piece orchestra. |  |
| The number of performers, versatile space and a generously sloping stage (good news for those towards the back of the stalls) are going to make the ensemble numbers spectacular. UK Tickets predicts that Consider Yourself is going to be a real highlight. The only things UK Tickets is worried about are two towers that stand either side of the stage which appear to be built just inside the proscenium about a third of the way into the stage’s depth, narrowing the view to the space beyond them. This may change, but customers might want to be careful when going for end of row seats. | |
| Oliver! will of course star Rowan Atkinson as Fagin and I’d Do Anything’s Jodie Prenger as Nancy. The theatre has also enjoyed a mini refurbishment with brand new seats and carpet in the circles and balcony so you can enjoy this shiny new epic is comfort. The new seats are good for posture too, apparently, so book yours here. | |
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