Encores! 2023: LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with Ruthie Ann Miles, DEAR WORLD with Donna Murphy, and OLIVER!- Page 10

[SoCalDirector]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 1:15am

I was there tonight and Benjamin Pajak, as Oliver's rendition of Where Is Love? stopped the show  with the biggest ovation. I've heard since Lea Michele's Don't Rain on My Parade in Funny Girl.

Lilli and Raul were also outstanding.  Aside from the sort of odd opening, the audience seemed to be loving the show tremendously.

[UWS10023]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 2:18am

I was there for opening and the headline for me is that Lear Debessonet is not a One Hit Wonder. She is proving herself to be a very skilled director. The production was very polished. Her  scene work flowed smoothly and she has a talent for working with a simple concept and enriching it with lovely compositions that are motivated by the characters and their relationships. Musical numbers were a delight to watch and we’re enhanced with witty choreography and acrobatics. Her work reminds me of James Lapine. She was also keenly aware of sight lines and the limitations of the City Center stage.

The cast was uniformly strong and appealing. The opening was more presentational that the rest of the piece but I think it was a nod to the origins of Encores and its reader’s theatre roots.

I found very little to criticize. Some of the cockney was a little hard to understand and I felt some of the cues could have been picked up but other than that…….

I don’t think the intention of Encores has ever been to produce works that could transfer but I think this one could given it has not been on Broadway in years. Even though the musical numbers do not move the plot forward as they do in more contemporary musicals,  they are quite catchy and many people were humming and singing to themselves as they left the theatre. The show has a wide appeal and is suitable for children.

Updated On: 5/4/23 at 02:18 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 4:14pm

Enjoyed myself very much. Cast is fine with  Cooper a standout and Benjamin Pasak ia revelation.  

[Alessio2]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 5:38pm

Saw Oliver on opening night and I thought it was overall excellent.  I didn't know the show at all and was surprised how dark it gets in the second act.  I am still confused why Raul Esparza got the last bow and not the actor playing Oliver, which is the title character after all.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 9:46pm

Jesse Green's gone all Gollum over Oliver! His review reads like one long argument with himself: "It's good. But it shouldn't be good. But it is good. But it shouldn't be good. But it is good. But ..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/theater/oliver-review-encores-city-center.html

[JSquared2]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 10:31pm

Alessio2 said: "Saw Oliver on opening night and I thought it was overall excellent. I didn't know the show at all and was surprised how dark it gets in the second act. I am still confused why Raul Esparza got the last bow and not the actor playing Oliver, which is the title character after all."

 

Maybe because Raul Esparza is Raul Esparza—- and you didn’t even know the name of the kid who played Oliver (Benjamin Pajak)?

[Alessio2]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 10:43pm

Your response is so douchey and typical of commenters on this board. The point is Benjamin Pajak is the lead of the show, NOT the actor who played Fagin 

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/4/23 at 11:05pm

Alessio2 said: "Your response is so douchey and typical of commenters on this board. The point is Benjamin Pajak is the lead of the show, NOT the actor who played Fagin."

Yeah. Although previous actors who've played Fagin in Olivier! received award nominations in lead acting categories. Clive Revill was Tony nominated as lead for the original Broadway production. Ron Moody was Oscar nominated as lead for the film version. Moody was later Tony nominated as lead for the 1984 Broadway revival. Jonathan Pryce earned an Olivier nomination as lead for the 1994 West End revival. Rowan Atkinson was Olivier nominated as lead for the 2009 West End revival.

Updated On: 5/4/23 at 11:05 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 5/5/23 at 11:39am

David Gordon at Theatremania is mixed.

And not that it necessarily means something, but between this and Zachary Stewart's God of Carnage review, this is the second off-Broadway revival review from Theatremania in two weeks where the underlying thesis seems to be "this well-liked property wasn't any good in the first place".

[UWS10023]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 6:58am

I think they should sell the show to NBC and run it this December as Oliver Live. They could leave the cast pretty much the same but perhaps find a popular name for The Artful Dodger. I believe the director was the program director for Annie Live so she knows the ropes. Perhaps City Center is one step ahead of me……anyway just saying…..

Updated On: 5/6/23 at 06:58 AM

[amiyagi]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 7:58am

Have tickets for this afternoon and apparently there's a talk back afterwards. Has anyone been to one with Encores and is it worth staying for? We were going to go for a leisurely dinner afterwards before an 8PM show but aren't sure.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 8:07am

UWS10023 said: "I think they should sell the show to NBC and run it this December as Oliver! Live. They could leave the cast pretty much the same but perhaps find a popular name for The Artful Dodger. I believe the director was the program director for Annie Live so she knows the ropes. Perhaps City Center is one step ahead of me……anyway just saying….."

I think there are two more likely scenarios than that:

1. More famous performers would be cast in the roles of Fagin, Nancy, and Bill Sikes as opposed to Dodger.

2. A live televised production of Oliver! would probably be a U.K. exclusive. I doubt the musical itself is commercially viable enough here in the United States.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 12:23pm

KevinKlawitter said: "David Gordon at Theatremania is mixed.

And not that it necessarily means something, but between this andZachary Stewart's God of Carnage review, this is the second off-Broadway revival review from Theatremania in two weeks where the underlying thesis seems to be "this well-liked property wasn't any good in the first place"."

To be fair, many of my friends who've seen this production- and myself included- walked away thinking, "Wow, Oliver! is surprisingly not a great show."

The production is wonderful, but it lays bare the show's weaknesses.

[SoCalDirector]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 3:09pm

JSquared2 said: "Alessio2 said: "Saw Oliver on opening night and I thought it was overall excellent. I didn't know the show at all and was surprised how dark it gets in the second act. I am still confused why Raul Esparza got the last bow and not the actor playing Oliver, which is the title character after all."

I think that Benjamin is well known from The Music Man.  While, Annie always got the final bow in the musical Annie I'm pretty sure Fagin usually gets the final battle in the show.  Benjamin Moore than held his way with Broadway. Stars like Raul and Lilli. Since they do alphabetical billing at encores, it will be interesting to see the billing if it does go to Broadway.

Maybe because Raul Esparza is Raul Esparza—- and you didn’t even know the name of the kid who played Oliver (Benjamin Pajak)?"

 

[April Saul]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 8:48pm

Oliver was the first Broadway show I saw in the 1960s as a kid, so it was a sentimental must to catch this Encores version and I have to say that I really loved it. Pasak stops the show with Where Is Love? and it was great to see Esparza again. Sure, it's dated, but the score and actors are wonderful and for me, it was hands-down better than New York, New York and Some Like it Hot, though it'd be hard to choose between Oliver and Parade.

I get that it's dated and the book has some issues, but I really hope this one transfers,

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 5/6/23 at 9:04pm

Reading the most recent comments, I’m realizing that I haven’t seen a production of Oliver! since the US tour in the 90s. I don’t doubt that it’s dated, but I would love for the book to be updated/revised. Or was it already updated once when CM took the reins? My memory with this show is shotty but it holds a warm place in my heart. 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 1:06am

This musical sucks. It’s the same thing over and over again singing about how poor they are. They could easily make this a one act musical if they just cut the fat and string together all the scenes that actually have action and move the plot forward. 

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 1:08am

If anything transfers, I really hope it’s Dear World. I was beyond moved by it, and Donna Murphy was sensational. And I really want a cast recording.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 7:45am

This was a miss for me. Yes, Benjamin Pajak was adorable and talented and so were the other boys, but the show is dated and it felt like they knew that. Esparza definitely mumbled and was hard to understand in many moments (maybe on purpose as a drunk, but still&hellip, Lilli Cooper has the voice for Nancy, but I’m never a fan of her acting and the others were all just kind of there without purpose. Even the Artful Dodger didn’t do much, and that’s such a fun role. Don’t know if that was the actor’s fault, the director’s fault or more likely, the combination of both. Fagin sends Dodger to look after Oliver, so where is he when everything goes down? No explanation.

The whole show just felt random. Of course songs like “Consider Yourself” are great, but that’s not enough to make the whole show great. It was an okay afternoon, but I wouldn’t recommend this and I hope it doesn’t transfer. Sorry to those involved.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 5:38pm

Gavin Lee will be on for Fagin tonight, per Instagram.

[3NU]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 10:50pm

Kad said: "KevinKlawitter said: "David Gordon at Theatremania is mixed.

And not that it necessarily means something, but between this andZachary Stewart's God of Carnage review, this is the second off-Broadway revival review from Theatremania in two weeks where the underlying thesis seems to be "this well-liked property wasn't any good in the first place"."

To be fair, many of my friends who've seen this production- and myself included- walked away thinking, "Wow, Oliver! is surprisingly not a great show."

The production is wonderful, but it lays bare the show's weaknesses."

I saw today's matinee with a friend, neither of us familiar with the piece. Both of us came out of the show commenting how weak the book is and how poorly the musical has aged. 

All the actors seemed to put their all into what is clearly an imperfect piece. Raul's performance was especially lived in, though his lack of strong diction -- a previous poster used the word "mumbled" -- particularly as the show went on, made it very difficult to hear what he was saying/singing half the time (at least from the balcony). Lilli Cooper was beautiful in voice. Benjamin Pajak was pitch perfect and brought all the earnestness required of him. And the orchestra, elevated onstage, sounded fantastic. 

Glad I got to see this, but I'm not sure I really need to revisit Oliver! again anytime soon...

Updated On: 5/8/23 at 10:50 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/7/23 at 11:05pm

UWS10023 said: "I think they should sell the show to NBC and run it this December as Oliver Live. They could leave the cast pretty much the same but perhaps find a popular name for The Artful Dodger. I believe the director was the program director for Annie Live so she knows the ropes. Perhaps City Center is one step ahead of me……anyway just saying….."

The key problem being that the NBC Live musicals must be cast with B-list names to make the property appeal to a four-quadrant audience. This Encores production has no names. So that would involve replacing Raul, Lilli, Dodger, and others to try to gin up viewership, and translating its staging and design into something more "realistic." A tall order.

Broadway would be more likely, but this isn't even selling out at Encores so it might be a waste of Cameron's money.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 5/8/23 at 12:00am

I'd agree with most on here that this is a fairly wonderful production of a terribly flawed musical.  I actually like the tunes a lot (though As Long as He Needs Me feels terribly dated in terms of content) and the cast is pretty winning at performing them.  I was saying to my friends how Lorin Latarro really didn't scale down the choreography for the 10 year olds to perform it--some massive talent on stage there outside of Benjamin Pajak himself who is every bit the revelation that people have mentioned him to be.  Raul Esparza is charming as always on stage (though I agree with his diction, not sure I understood any of Reviewing the Situation) and Brad Oscar/Mary Testa and Thom Sesma/Rashidra Scott are great in roles that feel like they're struggling for relevance (what even is the point of I Shall Scream?).

The book is a bit of a mess, and I'm not sure how drastic the changes made for this production were as I haven't seen any other version of the show.  But the beginning plods until we hit Consider Yourself, I still don't understand what Bill Sikes does or why everyone's afraid of him (is it just because he's violent?), and the second act speeds by without really any moment for us to understand why Mr. Brownlow cares so much for Oliver (or even Nancy or Fagin for that matter.  Oliver was with them for what, a day?)

But like Dear World, I think this is the kind of production that works particularly well at Encores: a very flawed/dated musical but one cast with fantastic performers to really make as much of it as they can.  I'm dubious that we'd get a transfer out of this (apparently rights are tied up with Cameron Mackintosh though, so who knows what he might try to do), but I would love to have a cast album just for Benjamin Pajak alone.

[starcatchers]

Posted: 5/8/23 at 12:59am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Gavin Lee will be on for Fagin tonight, per Instagram."

He was absolutely delightful, although so hard to hear at points (beyond the usual mixed bag of acoustics that City Center always is) to the point I wondered if they'd turned his mic down.

[Broadway Flash]

Posted: 5/8/23 at 1:31am

Dear world was a million times better than Oliver.