I'd Do Anything!! (Oliver!)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Oliver!
Date:	25/09/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great show, kids were great, stage was great

Disadvantages: None

I'd Do Anything........ to see Oliver on stage again.

This past weekend my husband and I went to see Oliver the Musical in London and what a fantastic show it was. The production is at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane with the closet tube station being Covent Garden. The theatre itself is one of the old ones in London, over 200 years old we were told so it looks very classical and interesting inside. It's quite small compared to somewhere like the Paladium but this to me makes the production more intimate and you really feel like you are part of the show and watching it as if you are a bystander in old London town.

We had tickets in the stalls which were near the back. When I bought them they did inform me that they were partial blocked view seats and it is actually printed on the tickets that the circle overhang may obscure your view momentarily. It's true, the circle overhead did come down quite low and made you feel a bit claustrophobic. This probably applied to the last 15 or so rows in the back but once the show started you really forgot about that and in fact the overhang actually framed the stage. There were only a few times when the cast were on a bridge across the stage that you didn't see them but it really was only momentarily and did not take away from the show for me. We paid £37.50 each for our tickets but I think they do go up to £70 ish for the better seats. I do want to see this again and would probably pay the £70 next time. We bought our tickets from See Tickets.

The famous story is based on the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The music and lyrics were written by Lionel Bart. This to me is a classic Dickens tale utilizing Dickensien London in all its glory. London itself forms a great background for the story and the sets in my opinion were just amazing. The stage is quite big so it really allowed for a lot of depth to be added to the sets, showing lots of dark and winding London streets for orphan boys to get lost in.

The show actually first premiered in the West End way back in 1960 with a new revival opening this year in January. Last year the BBC ran a show trying to find a new actress for the character of Nancy and also a few boys to rotate in the part of Oliver. The eventual winner, Jodie Prenger played the part of Nancy wonderfully. She has a big stage presence and a really powerful voice and managed to pull off the cockney accent very well. She had a few solo songs and you could definitely see the emotion in her performance.

It was the kids who made this musical for me. They were so well trained and polished and just a joy to watch. They were entertaining and extremely funny. The Artful Dodger stole the show for me. He was just a little kid but his dancing skills were second to none and he for me was definitely better than the boy who played Oliver although he was good too. My favourite number throughout the whole production was, "Consider Yourself," which is sung by The Artful Dodger, Oliver and the chorus. It was quite a long song but the singing and the dancing was mesmerising and you just could not take your eyes off the kids.

It's amazing how many well known songs are in this production that are used everyday in television advertising or just ones you have heard for years and years. Songs include Food, Glorious Food, I'd Do Anything, Oliver and As Long As He Needs Me.

The part of Fagin was quite a big character. When the show reopened in 2009 it originally stared Rowan Atkinson but he has just been replaced with the comic Omid Djalili. He was really good in the role, not someone I thought who could have played it when I first heard it was him but he has such a big personality anyway that he really used that and some of his own initiative to make the part very funny.

The costumes were great, both those of the scruffy orphans as well as the upper class clothes and really again added to the Dickens style of this musical. I loved this show and so it seems did the rest of the audience as we gave the cast a standing ovation at the end. Definitely one I would recommend.

Summary: Oliver the Musical