The sensational score of Oliver! is full of Lionel Bart's irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You've Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I'd Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah and As Long As He Needs Me.
Oliver! recently completed a two year run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London where it opened to rave reviews, sell-out business and the biggest advance sales of all time for a West End show. Last year, Oliver! celebrated its 50th birthday, having premiered in the West End in 1960.
Brian Conley stars as Fagin.
There are also some new, darker textures brought out by the more intimate, domesticated scale of the staging, so that the jaunty, music hall influenced songs, like Consider Yourself, I’d Do Anything and of course Oom-pah-pah, don’t entirely drown Dickens’s more serious intentions.
This Oliver! storms through Dickens’s story in fine style, helped by an impressive and thoughtful performance from Brian Conley as Fagin, and a dazzling set by Totie Driver and Adrian Vaux.
A standing ovation is certainly Edinburgh’s way of telling the cast of Oliver! they want more!
Despite the familiarity with the story and songs, this production is full of 'West End Values' and a theatrical experience worth catching.
Director Laurence Connor captures the Dickensian lasciviousness without venturing to far from family-friendly. This Oliver! will have you giggling, clapping and captivated if you catch it.
Impressively staged if sometimes trivial.
Brian Conley to play Fagin in Oliver!
Oliver! set for run at Edinburgh Playhouse
Preview: Oliver! the Musical
Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh from Wednesday May 30, 2012, until Saturday June 23, 2012. More info: www.edinburghplayhouse.org.uk