‘Oliver!’ — Offering a Little More for the Holidays
By AILEEN JACOBSON
Published: December 5, 2008
Photo by Paul DeGrocco for The New York Times
Michelle DeJean being held by Kit Treece, left, and Jacob Thompson in ‘Oliver!’ at the Engeman Theater.
From loneliness to love, evil to redemption, misery to joy. These are
among the progressions in a story by Charles Dickens that often unfolds
in theaters during the holiday season.
One of the myriad adaptations of “A Christmas Carol,” that scrumptious
tale in which Scrooge finds friendship, forgiveness and reason to
celebrate? Not at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, where the
choice is “Oliver!” The popular show with book, music and lyrics by
Lionel Bart follows the adventures of Oliver Twist, an orphan who
eventually finds love and happiness, while some of his tormentors
reform. With its focus on children, family and justice, the story suits
Christmas and Hanukkah — or at least theater producers think so. The
musical, which made its debut in London in 1960 and on Broadway in
1963, is designed to leave a warm feeling, one reason for its
longstanding success.
The 1968 film version won five Oscars, and later this month a huge new
stage production is scheduled to open in London starring Rowan Atkinson
(“Mr. Bean”) and two leads selected via a BBC reality series.
Another reason the musical has endured is that Bart created a bouquet
of lovely songs, including “Where Is Love?” “As Long as He Needs Me”
and “Who Will Buy?” What he also did was simplify and soften the
harsher social commentary of Dickens’s 1838 novel.
The Engeman production, unfortunately, flattens the story even more,
leading to a one-dimensional, though entertaining, show. The orchestra,
under Donny Jones, brings solid support to the fine singing throughout,
and Robert Andrew Kovach’s set, brushed occasionally by fog, handsomely
suggests the streets, institutions, shops and homes of Victorian
England.
The action begins with a line of children filing down a stairway to the
dour mess hall of the Parish Workhouse singing “Food, Glorious Food,”
which is a dream, not part of their dismal reality. These young actors
— boys and a few girls playing boys — have been thoroughly drilled by
Stephen Nachamie, the director, and Vic DiMonda, the choreographer.
They hit every note and every mark with admirable precision, and do so
again when they play pickpocketing street boys. One wishes they could
just relax a little, and perhaps they will in the future. (One also
wishes Mr. Nachamie and Mr. DiMonda brought similar rigor to two
awkward chase scenes.)
Oliver, of course, emerges to pose the famous request, “Please, sir, I
want some more.” Michael Kleeman, who is 10 — the age that this Oliver
says he is — has an ethereal voice, as he demonstrates in “Where Is
Love?” and again when he joins a group of peddlers greeting a gorgeous
morning in “Who Will Buy?”
It takes a few scenes for the show’s energy to rev up. J. B. Adams and
Jane Blass do nice comic turns as the workhouse overseers Mr. Bumble
and Widow Corney, but the pace really picks up when Oliver arrives at
the shop of the undertaker to whom he has been sold — yes, sold. Roger
Preston Smith, as Mr. Sowerberry, the proprietor, and Terry Palasz as
his wife are ghouls worthy of the Addams Family. Kimberly Matela’s
sumptuous costumes and Mark Adam Rampmeyer’s intricate hair designs
help, but this duo manages to add sting to their cavorting, a complex
note that is called for even in a family show.
The musical springs to life again when Oliver — a runaway by now —
meets the Artful Dodger, who invites him to join his dubious family in
the song “Consider Yourself.” Troy Doherty, who is 12, has a showman’s
pizazz, just right for a charismatic thief.
Though Fagin, the head of the pickpocket band, doesn’t have to be
nasty, he needs an edge of darkness to make his later redemption work.
Neal Benari, an accomplished performer, portrays him as a benign Tevye
who has wandered over from a “Fiddler on the Roof” (a show in which
Benari has appeared on Broadway). On the opposite end, Rob Gallagher,
another able performer (whose credits include a Broadway stint as
Javert in “Les Misérables”), presents a totally evil Bill Sykes,
Fagin’s murderous protégé. A little nuance might help us understand
what his girlfriend, Nancy (who does a bad thing or two but repents),
sees in him. Fortunately, Nancy is played by Michelle DeJean (a recent
Roxie Hart in “Chicago” on Broadway), whose open-hearted glow makes us
mourn her character’s demise. Dear Oliver, as we know, finally gets his
“more.” That’s what makes this a holiday show.
“Oliver!” at John W. Engeman Theater, 250 Main Street, Northport, through Jan. 4. Information: (631) 261-2900 or www.engemantheater.com.
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Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady
October 01, 2008
Reviewed by A.J. Mell
Any musical that rhymes coup d'état with Wonderbra obviously has something going for it, though this fantasy of Coney Island in the 1920s works better as a live-action cartoon than as an evocation of personal tragedy.
Book writer and lyricist Dana Leslie Goldstein alternates between domestic scenes of comic-book artist Sally (Ariela Morgenstern) and the mythic world of the female superhero who stars in Sally's latest opus. Jodie Bentley plays Sally's creation, who is known in civilian life as Roma, a gypsy singer and cooch dancer in Coney Island girlie shows. A spate of suspicious fires and roller-coaster accidents at the Dreamland amusement park prompts Roma to assume her superhero alter ego, Cyclone, and fly to the rescue. What Cyclone's appreciative public doesn't realize is that she has help behind the scenes from her deformed, introverted, but psychically gifted twin sister, Pia (also played by Morgenstern). Sally imagines the twins as two parts of the same psyche, with Pia the visionary introvert supplying woman-of-action Roma with the information she needs to carry out her heroic mission.
Populated with colorful sideshow archetypes — notably Mephisto (David Garry), the satanic impresario of the House of Horrors — Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady benefits from Morgenstern's sympathetic presence and the solid vocal talents of the supporting cast. Composer Rima Fand contributes an atmospheric score that conjures old-time cabaret and French accordion music, seasoned with a dash of contemporary dissonance.
It's only in the scenes of Sally at her drawing board that the concept falters. In addition to some standard love-versus-career ruminations, the driven young artist is saddled with an insensitive, clueless square of a boyfriend named Andy (Paul Niebanck), who perishes in a Sept. 11-inspired tragedy. Sally's anguished response just doesn't ring true — partly because the guy is such a clod and partly because the very notion of these two people being attracted to each other feels like a writer's contrivance.