Book, Music and Lyrics
by Lionel Bart
Directed by Jude
Colquhoun
A Queanbeyan Players
Inc production
The Q Theatre,
Queanbeyan to 6 October
Reviewed by Len Power
27 September 2019
Lionel Bart’s ‘Oliver!’ has been a phenomenal success internationally
ever since it first opened on stage in London in 1960. The popular film version in 1968 won the
Academy Award for Best Picture.
Based on the 19th century novel, ‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens,
the musical follows the story of an innocent child, Oliver, who was born in a
work house for the poor in England and, after escaping to London, is taken in
by the Jew, Fagin, and his gang of young thieves. Oliver’s ultimate escape from this life of
squalor involves murder and mayhem but all ends happily for the boy.
The strength of Queanbeyan Players’ production is in the
fine singing and dancing by the large cast of the well-known songs, ‘Consider
Yourself’, ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’, ‘Who Will Buy?’ and ‘You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or
Two’. The large orchestra, conducted by
Jen Hinton, plays the score very well and sound balance between singers and
orchestra is fine.
Costumes by Janetta McRae are nicely in period and the
choreography by Jodi Hammond illustrates the intention of the songs very well
and is scaled to the right level for her dancers’ abilities. The enthusiasm in the performances by the
large ensemble makes these songs very entertaining.
With atmospheric character names like Sowerberry, Widow
Corney, Mr Bumble and Dr Grimwig, there is a great opportunity for detailed character
work by the actors. Many of the performers
in this production delivered performances of little depth. However, Tina Robinson as the Widow Corney
and Chris Bennie as Mr Bumble, the Beadle, gave nicely drawn Dickensian characters
with their performances.
Willum Hollier-Smith was a fine Oliver. His singing of ‘Where Is Love?’ was excellent
and his acting was confident and convincing throughout the show. There was also generally good work by Anthony
Swadling as Fagin, Emily Pogson as Nancy, Joss Kent as the Artful Dodger and
Michael Jordan as Bill Sikes.
The set, designed by the director and consisting of moveable
screens, was practical given the number of scene changes required, but lacked
atmosphere. There was no sense of the period
in London at all.
‘Oliver!’ is always an entertaining show. Audiences will have a good time with this,
especially the big musical numbers. With
stronger characterizations and a more interesting set design, it could have
been even better.
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast on the Artsound FM 92.7 ‘In the Foyer’ program on Mondays
and Wednesdays at 3.30pm.