Book, Music and Lyrics by Lionel Bart
Based on Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist"
The curtain opens on the sinister interior of the workhouse with a bare dining table. Pale-faced wretches can be seem peering through the bars of the door at the back. Widow Corney, who runs the workhouse, and Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, enter to serve gruel to the boys. Alone amongst them Oliver takes the bowl to Bumble and asks, "Please, Sir, I want some more." Bumble is outraged. Oliver must go and so he hawks Oliver through the streets of London. Oliver is sold to Mr Sowerberry, the undertaker.
He runs away and meets the Artful Dodger. Oliver is taken to a hideout to meet Fagin and the apprentice thieves. The next morning Oliver goes with the boys and is arrested by the police, not for picking pockets but simply for looking guilty.
Fagin's boys tell of Oliver's arrest by the police but that, as he has been found to be innocent, he is now safe in the house of a kindly, rich gentleman. Fagin and Sykes dispatch Nancy to get Oliver back. Meanwhile, Oliver has become a well-cared for little lad. Seeing London street-traders from his bedroom window he hopes that his good fortune will become permanent. However, outside the house he is captured by Nancy and she returns him to Fagin. Fagin thinks of going straight.
Bumble and Mrs Corney, now married, discover that Oliver is the heir to a rich family and try to get him back. A regretful Nancy plans to return Oliver to his benefactor. She is fearful of Sykes. Sykes stalks and kills her, grabs Oliver and, after a chase, is shot dead. Oliver is restored to his benefactor who, as it turns out, is his own grandfather. Fagin is now minus the boys, a home and money.
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| I wasn't in Oliver - it was produced two years before I was in my first show - but one of my clearest memories of SSTFY is from Oliver. My sister Gene Ann worked on the show and because of that I had to go. I was dragged kicking and screaming to the performance, would that I could have been anywhere else, but once there, I was enchanted. It is the first time I can remember falling in love with the theatre. My hat is off to the cast for a wonderful show. |
Tom Magette |
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