Oliver! 2007

Three renderings of costumes for the upcoming production of Oliver. Designed by and drawn by Amanda Harris-Forbes.

This enduring, popular musical has been an audience favorite since it’s debut in the 1960’s because of its memorable songs, clever lyrics, unforgettable characters and most importantly, its faithful adaptation and adherence to the theme and spirit of the original source book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

The show opens in a rural poor house where hungry orphans dream of "Food! Glorious Food!" Young Oliver nervously asks for more and instead of receiving an extra portion of gruel, he is coldly sold as a workhouse servant to the local undertaker and his grasping, haughty family. Oliver runs away from the scary trappings of the funeral home and travels to the mighty city of London. Destitute, penniless with no friends or relations, he meets the Artful Dodger who invites Oliver to "Consider Yourself" one of the family and brings the young boy to the Thieves Den to meet their boss Fagin.

The show continues the adventures of Oliver as the pickpockets try to teach him the business of larceny and he is wrongfully arrested and charged with stealing. The first person who shows some real compassion to Oliver, Nancy, risks her life to protect the boy from her murderous companion Bill Sikes. Chases! Living people locked in coffins! Murder! Midnight rendezvous on foggy London Bridge! Police shoot out and more! All of this thrilling melodrama by Charles Dickens and more with characters so real you feel you’ve known them all your life.

Oliver! is rich with great music that spans the breadth of human emotion from the plaintive ballad "Where is Love?," the torch song "As Long as He Needs Me," the rousing tavern chorus of "Oom Pah Pah" to the reflective musings of "Reviewing the Situation." March with Londoners as they sing "Consider Yourself," dance with street urchins as they learn "You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" or harken to the call of a morning market as vendors shout out "Who Will Buy?"

Don’t miss all the fun and adventure, the drama, the pathos, the killing poverty and the redemption of life and restoration of family -- all of this in the life of an extraordinary little boy, a boy and a musical named Oliver!