1984 Revival of Oliver — Page 2

Yes but when Mackintosh re-mounted the Palladium production in 2009 in London, it was diluted once again, because of the new director - Rupert Goold who 'adapted' Mendes's original 1994 direction. Mendes approached Oliver! as a play with music; it was a grotesquely dark, terrifying production. He cast it with classical actors, not musical theatre stars (Jonathan Pryce as Fagin, Sally Dexter as Nancy and Miles Anderson as Sikes)... Just listen to Dexter on Fine Life reprise on the 1994 recording - it is truly breathtaking.

Unfortunately, I don't see how Oom-Pah-Pah would work in the show putting it at the end like in the film, as it is a strong opener for Act 2, and also the London Bridge chase scene happens directly after the Brownlow/Nancy scene in the show - the show would drag on if you went back to the pub to do Oom-Pah-Pah before Nancy's death...

I think one of the main problems with the show is that it takes so long to actually settle plot-wise... The three major characters, Fagin, Nancy and Sikes, are arguably supporting roles since the first two don't appear until the last scene in act 1, and the latter until the first scene in act 2...

I think LuPone mentions in her book that the director was phoning it in, and didn't really care about the show, and also how she locked horns with the music director about transposing some of the keys.

'I'm curious about the new material. Can anybody cite examples? Was it in the book or were lyrics/music adjusted?'

I think Bart wrote a prologue at the beginning of the show, it was removed in the 2009 revival,

A revival or television special of OLIVER! is troubled by rights issues. Lionel Bart sold the rights to the show in the early 1970s for £300,000 which was basically to pay off his debts from a life of living the high life. Sony owns the film rights (via its purchase of Columbia Pictures), Cameron Macintosh has some sort of control over the stage rights, and God only knows who owns the music rights. It would take a a huge team of lawyers to "review the situation" where NBC could get rights for a live tv production.

Updated On: 1/8/14 at 10:45 PM

NETworks sent out a tour of the Mendes production back around 2003 or so that was co-produced with Cameron Macintosh. It was non-Equity, so I would assume that it was somebody else recreating the work of the original team.

The 1994 Palladium score/script revisions were plentiful:
1. There was a Prologue added - inspired by David Lean's 1948 film prologue
2. Oliver's journey to London was added staging and music
3. Bill Sikes appeared in Fagin's den just before 'morning' i.e. It's a Fine Life - inspired by the 1968 film's first appearance of Sikes

The script had many revisions for scenes like Widow Corney's parlor at the start and the London Bridge chase sequence at the end, both of which took extra dialogue from Dickens's novel.

The score and orchestrations were heavily revised... New lyrics were added to the song 'Oliver' and the orchestrations were beefed up, and jazzed up... The overall production was not as melodramatic as the 1960 production... it was rooted in a reality that Mendes took from the original novel and the 1948 Lean film. The set was by Anthony Ward, I believe, and was simply more realistic and obvious than Sean Kenny's original abstract jungle of wood and steel. Mendes "didn't want the audience to wonder where they were at any moment"... It truly was a magnificent reinterpretation of a classic, in that era of revivals, but was sadly watered down in 2009 when it was remounted. For instance, they got rid of the Prologue in '09, and cut 'I Shall Scream!' in half, and I think the production lost its edge and darkness, because of Jodie Prenger's cabaret-style performance as Nancy, and Rowan Atkinson's hammy over the top Fagin which was, as someone previously stated, littered with references to Mr. Bean.

Updated On: 1/8/14 at 08:34 AM

One of her prettier, less affected vocal performances:

Ann-Margret - As Long As He Needs Me

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Updated On: 1/9/14 at 12:04 PM

We caught a version of the Macintosh production that was touring Sydney Australia in 2002. Not sure how true to the original Sam Mendes mounting it was, but we had a great time even though I personally detest most of the songs. The show had drive and momentum and moved beautifully through the set conceit of above-ground/ below-ground action. We were pleasant surprised at how stageworthy the thing really is in the right hands.

I think I've read somewhere that Lionel Bart hated the film of Oliver, particularly what was done to Who Will Buy, but acknowledged that changes needed to be made prior to the 1994 Mendes/Mackintosh production as audience expectations needed to make the stage version closer to the film.

I'd agree that was a fantastic production that managed to cover up any holes in the book - something which the Daniel Evans directed production currently at the Sheffield Crucible does not; in fact they're more obvious there than those in Mrs Johnson's carpet.

Sally Dexter and Sonia Swaby were both magnificent as Nancy in the 1990s production and, although My Name sounds a bit of a clunker when listened to on a recording, I have always found it genuinely threatening on stage (even in the current Devans production): I love the line about the bloke walking in the alley whose eyes will never talley.

Recent documentaries on BBC4 include a rise-and-fall-of-Lionel-Bart and another on ghost singers in film adaptions of stage shows, the latter of which includes an interview with Mark Lester, now in his 50s and still very good looking.

Updated On: 1/10/14 at 06:07 AM