OLIVER! | GIELGUD THEATRE, LONDON
★★★★★
… a phenomenal company and magnificently staged production
Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, one of the greatest and most endearing musicals of all time, returns to its roots in this stunning new production directed by Sir Matthew Bourne and produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh. As it does, it brings a joyous evening of dramatic storytelling, exquisite choreography and a score of much loved classics to London’s Gielgud Theatre that’s guaranteed to leave you reviewing the situation before deciding you need to see it again. It’s that good.
Based on Charles Dickens’ second novel, Oliver Twist, written in 1838, Bart’s musical retelling of Oliver’s story has long been a favourite of audiences both on stage and on screen. His score, one of the most loved in the musical theatre canon, delivers classic after classic. At times catchy, at times heart-achingly sad, they’ve all found a place in the affections of generation after generation.
In search of a better life, when young Oliver absconds from the workhouse in which he was brought into the world (just as his mother left it), he soon finds himself under the watchful eye of Fagin, a criminal running a band of young thieves and pickpockets led by the silver-tongued Jack Dawkins, better known as The Artful Dodger. Welcomed into Fagin’s family of street urchins, Oliver is introduced to a host of ne’er-do-wells including the maternal Nancy, once one of Fagin’s girls and now partner of the feared underworld figure, Bill Sikes. When the fledgling thief’s first day with the gang goes awry, Fagin quickly realises he must take drastic action to ensure Oliver’s arrest doesn’t bring the forces of law and order to his door; drastic action that will have tragic repercussions.
Bourne’s production looks to the show’s roots and Bart’s original intent for its inspiration. In doing so, he presents audiences with a musical masterpiece – this is the production of Oliver! you have waited all your life to see. One that embarks on a journey that sees tears of both emotion and joy flow freely. From the first scene, lighting designers Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs set the scene for what is to come. They play into the darkness that lies at the heart of Dickens’ tale through the evocative and dramatic use of light and shadows, in direct contrast to the rich ‘Technicolor’ hues they embrace later in the piece. Bourne, meanwhile, ensures that the grimmer aspects of the tale are never lost – the poverty, harshness and despair of Dickens’ London, where the price of a child for sale is just seven guineas, are never far from the surface.
Food Glorious Food, the captivating opening number and first of the show’s big anthems, emphasises this and is rewarded with an extended round of applause that sets a high bar. Of course, like all great musicals, Bart’s songs are as much ‘stars’ of the piece as those performing them. Where Is Love, beautifully delivered by Cian Eagle-Service, who plays the title role with wide-eyed wonder, brings the house down, while Consider Yourself, an energetic turn by The Artful Dodger and company is met by roars of approval while its reprise has the entire house clapping along.
Much of the credit for that is due to the performance of Billy Jenkins, an Artful Dodger with a physicality and comic mastery beyond his years. There’s no doubt that his performance here marks Jenkins as a musical powerhouse of the future. In truth though, there are no weak links in this ensemble of actors and chorus.
Simon Lipkin’s Fagin is a delightfully crafted creature, capturing the melancholy and hopelessness of a man destined to spend his life on the wrong side of the law while retaining a forlorn hope of better times to come. It’s a warm, engaging performance that connects through the fourth wall and frequently raises laughs thanks to a series of script revisions and new material by Mackintosh himself that range from razor sharp asides to knowing quips. Each reinforces the intimacy of the piece, which is already an embracing experience thanks to the cosines of the Gielgud Theatre. As Nancy, Shanay Holmes impresses with her soaring vocals. Loveable, defiant and tender, she delivers a spell-bindingly emotional rendition of As Long As He Needs Me that holds the theatre in rapt silence throughout – it’s an outstanding performance.
Introverted, prowling and quick to fury, Aaron Sidwell’s Bill Sikes, on the other hand, may eschew the bombastic approach of some in this role but his ‘quiet seething anger’ is chilling, and makes the explosive nature of his violence all the more shocking. Sidwell brings out the insidious damage inflicted by life in the employ of Fagin, humanising the character and make him more than just a two-dimensional baddie. Elsewhere, Stephen Matthews and Jamie Birkett have the audience in the palm of their hands as the loveable grotesques, Mr and Mrs Sowerberrys, while Philip Franks’ Mr Brownlow and Isabelle Methven’s Bet also provide strong supporting turns.
Oscar Conlon-Morrey’s Mr Bumble is a wonderfully endearing study in bumptiousness and quite hilarious when up against the brilliant foil that is Katy Secombe’s crafty Widow Corney. Both have impressive vocal ranges.
Bourne’s long-time collaborator, set and costume designer Lez Brotherston, gives the director a fittingly Dickensian London as his playground and Bourne uses even inch and level of it to ensure the action never falters whether filling the stage with life and vitality in magnificent set pieces such as I’d Do Anything, which is spectacularly choreographed, or Who Will Buy?, which is cinematic in its delivery. And as this briskly-paced production builds towards it brutal climax, the emotions elicited by Bourne’s direction are heightened further by a well balanced 12-piece orchestra, under the baton of Graham Hurman.
This is the piece of ‘Must See Theatre’ on the West End right now. You really do owe it to yourself to make the intimate acquaintance of this, the definitive Oliver, my dear.
Booking at the Gielgud Theatre through to March 2026. Tickets here.
Great review. A must see for me now.
Enjoy, Anne.