Musicals At Richter’s Seamless ‘Oliver!’ Continues A_Strong Season

By Julie Stern

DANBURY — It was definitely a two-blanket night at Richter for the opening performance of Oliver! last weekend under the stars, but the crowd was warmly dressed and enthusiastic, and not just because it contained so many friends and relatives of the fifty-plus performers.

Once again, George Vollano’s Musicals At Richter demonstrated that it is possible to integrate juvenile and adult performers into a seamless whole. The cast worked with another superlative set by Andrew Knapp, and under the strong guiding hand of Sabrina Post, who served as director, musical director and choreographer for this production.

Based on Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, the musical follows the adventures of the serious little foundling with the noble face who is expelled from the work house for having the temerity to ask for “some more” gruel. Sold by the bullying Beadle into slavery as an “undertaker’s boy,” Oliver flees and makes his way to London, where he falls into the clutches of Fagin, a capering thief who takes in homeless children and teaches them to be thieves and pickpockets.

How he escapes, and at what cost, and how he is eventually restored to his rightful place in life make up the plot of  this episodic tale. What makes it so enjoyable is the lusty evocation of Dickensian London.

The large cast makes it possible to have three separate ensembles. First there are the 18 children who play the bedraggled little orphans. Then, another dozen older youths comprise Fagin’s gang, and finally the official ensemble, which mixes teens and adults in a traditional chorus.

This large cast lends a richness and pageantry to the various tableaux, from the endless procession of orphans straggling into the workhouse, to the heaped up pile of youths in Fagin’s filthy den, to the riotous carousing of the denizens of the Three Cripples Publick House, where the thieves go to blow off steam after a day of crime.

Lionel Bart, who wrote both the music and the lyrics to the 15 memorable works songs, mixing plaintive ballads — “Where is Love” and “As Long as He Needs Me” — comic patter songs — “Pick a Pocket” (or two) and “Reviewing the Situation” — and rousing numbers for the chorus — “Food, Glorious Food”  and “Consider Yourself At Home.”

Oliver is played with poise and assurance by ten-year-old Tabor Onthank, and he does a very creditable job, both of acting and singing.  More importantly, all of the principals do extremely well, mixing innate talent with wise direction, especially David Roth as the oleaginous Fagin, and Juliette Garrison, as Nancy, the tough beauty who takes pity on little Oliver and helps him at the cost of her own life. Her voice is good, but it is her powerful presence that dominates the stage.

Also, Bret Poulter is ominously threatening as Nancy’s lover-murderer, the pitiless Bill Sykes, and Robert Ferzola, who shone as one of the Burger Palace Boys in Grease (the company’s second production this season), is equally impressive here in the role of the Artful Dodger, Oliver’s “friend” in London who introduces him to Fagin and the Thieves’ Kitchen.

Fast moving, melodious, entertaining and morally complex, Oliver! is a great way to introduce the whole family to Dickens as well as to Musicals at Richter. The only caveat is to check the weather and bring enough outerwear to keep comfortable in order to concentrate on the show and not the temperatures.

(Oliver! will be presented Friday through Sunday evenings at 8:30 pm until August 11. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $10 for students and children. Richter Arts Center is at 100 Aunt Hack Road; call 748-6873.)