Fantastic Family Production, ‘Oliver’ Closing Richter’s Season On A High Note

By Julie Stern

DANBURY — Oliver, Lionel Bart’s interpretation of Dickens that is serving as the 2011 season finale for Musicals At Richter (MAR), is truly a family affair. Not only is it suitable for children, but its large cast includes all sorts of combinations — husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, brothers and sisters — filling up the stage with raffishly costumed ensembles.

Based firmly on the novel Oliver Twist, the score has at least a dozen songs memorable enough that you would recognize them on a supermarket speaker and smile, from “Food, Glorious Food and “Consider Yourself at Home” to  “I’d Do Anything (For You),” “As Long As He Needs Me” and “Who Will Buy (my beautiful violets),” to name just a few.

The show charts the tale of the orphan Oliver Twist, who is expelled from the workhouse for having the temerity to ask for some more gruel. Sold by the corrupt beadle into virtual slavery to the undertaker, Mr Sowerberry, Oliver punches the bully Noah Claypole, who has insulted the memory of his mother. He then flees to London where he is taken in by the cheerful boy-thief, the Artful Dodger, and brought to the den of Fagin, who trains children to be pickpockets.

Temporarily rescued by kindly Mr Brownlow, who sees in the child an uncanny resemblance to his long-lost daughter, Oliver is recaptured by Fagin through the means of the saucy streetwalker Nancy and her brutish lover, Bill Sykes. When Nancy relents and arranges to bring Oliver back to Mr Brownlow, Bill follows her and kills her. He is then dispatched by a policeman, and the story ends with Oliver reunited with his grandfather.

Don’t worry that I am giving away the plot. The show presumes that you already know it, paying lip service to all the memorable lines from Dickens, while paring the story back to the level of somewhat static pageantry. Thus, the beadle, Mr Bumble, smarting under the sting of matrimony to the widow Corney, can say “The law is an ass” and Dr Grimwig, called in by Mr Brownlow to attend to Oliver, punctuates most statements with “Or I’ll eat my head!”

The best thing about this production, aside from those delightful costumes, are a couple of bravura performances from Tommy Matson as the beadle, and Stephen DiRocco as Fagin. They manage to be funny, malevolent, and at times bemused, so that they are the most fully realized characters.

Tyler Altomari and Jeremy Wong share the job of playing Oliver on alternating evenings, as do Phillip Coffey and Evan Smolin with the role of the Dodger. Meredith Walker gives a sly duplicity to the widow Corney, setting her trap for the Beadle. Sammy Panzarino is properly obnoxious as Noah Claypole. Nathan Mandracchia and Jane Matson do well as the Sowerberrys.

Jessica Smith has a fine voice as Nancy, while William Florie is properly menacing as Bill Sykes.  Ted Schwartz is kindly as the kindly Mr Brownlow, Laura Blackwell is even more kindly as his kindly housekeeper, Mrs. Bedwin, and Beth Bria is having none of that as the suspicious Dr. Grimwig.

Siobhan Ryan does well as the unfortunate Sowerberry daughter, Tony Harkin has fun as the Dodger’s buddy, Charles Bates, and Deanna Lasco makes a good friend to Nancy, as Bet. Barbara Kessler has a cameo role as Bet, who holds the secret to Oliver’s origins in her dying hand, and as I said at the beginning, the large ensembles flood the stage with a sense of time and place.

(Performances continue at Richter Arts Center, 100 Aunt Hack Road in Danbury, weekends until August 13.

See the Enjoy Calendar, in print or online, or contact Musicals at Richter (203-748-6873 or www.MusicalsAtRichter.org) for curtain and ticket details.)