Oliver

We went to see Oliver at the Theatre Royal in the West End a few weeks ago. The tickets had been bought a very long time ago when it was first announced that Fagin would be played by Rowan Atkinson, so it was a bit of a disappointment when we found out that Rowan had to take a couple of weeks off due to a hernia and Russ Abbott was to step into his shoes. However, having seen the show, I am happy to report that Russ did an excellent job. He brought plenty of character where it was needed, and just the right amount of humour too. And he can sing.

I have to say though, Russ was probably the best thing about this version of Lionel Bart’s classic. Just like Joseph, I found the production was ‘dumbed down’ – presumably for the benefit of those who were perhaps at their first West End show, having been seduced by the accompanying search for Nancy TV show. It has a touch of panto about it. The acoustic balance was all wrong, with the orchestra being far too loud and drowning out the singers on several occasions. I didn’t like the ‘mockney’ accents – that really didn’t work and contributed to making the show far less natural.

Jodie Prenger as Nancy was exceptionally popular with the audience as you’d expect, but I found her performance very one dimension and not at all fresh. Making every rendition sound as though it is the first one is one of the defining characteristics of a great musical performer. For me, Jodie just didn’t have it. She had probably sung her big number – As Long As He Needs Me – 100 times, and it showed. The phrasing could have been better and some more contrast would have improved things alot.

Having said that, Oliver is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicals ever written and it would be virtually impossible to mess it up completely because the simple melodies, great lyrics and colourful characters will always shine through. So, all in all, not as good as I’d hoped, but I still came out singing.