Oliver Revival of '84
Oliver Revival of '84
Broadway Star Joined: 10/23/05
Oliver Revival of '84#0
Posted: 3/4/06 at 2:16pm
Can somebody tell me more info on this short-lived revival? I can't believe it only ran for 17 performances! Thanks in advance!
re: Oliver Revival of '84#1
Posted: 3/4/06 at 7:05pm
Below is the original New York Times Review of the production. It pretty much explains how the show closed so quickly.
The link is at the bottom of the page.
"THEATER: MOOD IN 'OLIVER' REVIVAL
April 30, 1984
FRANK RICH
UNTIL Andrew Lloyd Webber's hits started to roll off the assembly line in the 1970's, Lionel Bart's 'Oliver!' held the record as the longest- running English musical ever to play Broadway. I'm afraid that this distinction says more about the quality of other English musicals than it does about the merits of 'Oliver!' In its first Broadway run two decades ago, Mr. Bart's bowdlerized retelling of 'Oliver Twist' seemed an old-fashioned, if tuneful, operetta. Predictably, the passing years have not been kind. In its new revival at the Mark Hellinger, the show is likely to hold the attention of only the youngest and most obedient children.
'Oliver!' is not unpleasant - just dull. Indeed, the first 40-odd minutes of the current production is as much afflicted by rigor mortis as the stiffs in the undertaker's emporium where the orphan hero briefly works. The evening gathers some steam once its two savvy stars, Ron Moody (Fagin) and Patti LuPone (Nancy), make their belated entrances, but, even then, 'Oliver!' never becomes rousing. The only sustained outpouring of joy occurs in the full-cast song medley of the curtain call. At a critics' preview, the audience's biggest hand was accorded to the villain Bill Sikes's dog.
To understand why 'Oliver!' fails, one needn't compare the musical to its source. While it's true that Mr. Bart reduces Dickens's novel to a series of inanimate cartoon panels - one can almost see the dialogue balloons above the immobile players' heads - that wouldn't matter if the show had genuine musical-comedy panache and spontaneity. But, now as before, 'Oliver!' has little style or dancing and only a few broad jokes. Mr. Bart's songs are tossed randomly into his indistinct book, like raisins in a Christmas pudding, with the result that even the skimpy remnants of Dickens's sure-fire plot lose their propulsive force. To see what's missing in 'Oliver!,' one need only recall Broadway's 'Annie' - another cartoon musical about an orphan who's rescued by a rich benefactor, but one that was built like a clock and wrapped in razzle-dazzle.
'Oliver!' has been directed by Peter Coe, who staged the original both on the West End and on Broadway. Aside from some minor surgery that includes the welcome excision of one song ('I Shall Scream'), Mr. Coe has replicated his previous work. We even get to look at the late Sean Kenny's original and, for its time, strikingly innovative scenery. In an era when many big musicals still used heavy, multiple sets that were changed behind frontdrops or during blackouts, Mr. Kenny designed a single, all-purpose, somewhat abstract construct, which moved about in full view of the audience. While Mr. Kenny's gloomy Brechtian design may look unimpressive now (especially as lighted by Andrew Bridge), it is still the only modern aspect of 'Oliver!'
With the exceptions of the stars and Graeme Campbell (whose Sikes is the single remotely Dickensian cameo of the evening), the performers who inhabit Mr. Kenny's wooden scaffolding are mostly mediocre. Braden Danner, who plays the title role, is at least a sweet-looking waif, but David Garlick, while talented, brings an excess of showbiz knowhow to the Artful Dodger's cloying anthem, 'Consider Yourself.' In the rest of the large supporting cast, the only delight is Sarah E. Litzsinger, a 12-year-old urchin who shines in her brief verse of the charming number 'I'd Do Anything.'
Some of the other more enjoyable songs in the score, such as 'Who Will Buy?' and 'Food, Glorious Food,' are defeated by what seems to be Mr. Coe's lack of enthusiasm for his task of historic preservation. The director hasn't bothered to shake the mothballs off his original staging; the company looks tired and, as miked, sounds disembodied. The Victorian crowd scenes, with their roving peddlers and boulevardiers, are so mechanical that we wonder if Mr. Coe isn't remembering 'Oliver!' as it looked at the end, rather than the outset, of its five-year-plus West End run.
Mr. Moody was Fagin both in the original London cast and in the 1968 film version. (That film, as directed by Carol Reed and choreographed by Onna White, is one of the rare Hollywood adaptations to improve upon a stage musical.) In Mr. Bart's mellow reading of Dickens, Fagin is more a lovable curmudgeon than a child-exploiting criminal; Mr. Moody responds with authentic, old-time vaudeville gusto that simultaneously suggests the disparate traditions of English Christmas pantomimes and Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof.' As Nancy, a scarlet woman with a heart of gold, Miss LuPone is neither warm nor convincingly English, but her big voice and vulgar Broadway bravado are so invigorating in these surroundings that only an ingrate would complain. When she sings 'As Long as He Needs Me,' it's the last word on this show's most famous song - or at least one hopes it is."
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F20714F8385C0C738FDDAD0894DC484D81
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Joined: 12/31/69
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
re: Oliver Revival of '84#3
Posted: 3/4/06 at 10:23pmBy the way, Christian Slater was Oliver in the pre-Broadway tour of this revival. Then puberty hit, and he was out of a job. Braden Danner went on to be the original Broadway Gavroche in Les Miz, as well as the recorded voice ot the little boy in Starlight Express.
Broadway Star Joined: 10/23/05
re: Oliver Revival of '84#4
Posted: 3/4/06 at 10:32pmThanks for the info! Are there any recordings of this production?
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