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WPCNR’S BROADWAY JOHNNY. Review by John F. Bailey. May 6, 2005: Westchester Broadway Theatre’s production of the Broadway legend, Oliver! debuted officially Thursday evening for its two month run receiving a five minute raucous ovation as the rollicking crew of pickpockets, thieves, urchins and scoundrels of Dickens’ 1830s London cockneyed their way through favorites Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, and Michelle Dawson’s solo showstoppers, As Long as He Needs Me, and I’d Do Anything, which brought bravos and thunderous accolades.
Oliver’s Opening Number at the WBT Thursday night. Photo by John Vecchiola, Courtesy Westchester Broadway Theatre.
The production is cleverly staged by Director George Puello with his trademark high energy, compelling choreography with a moving and versatile set, that changes from orphanage to funeral parlor to the Three Cripples Tavern smoothly without a hitch. The cast’s highly detailed costumes evoke London’s mean streets. London Bridge appears in believable silouette complete with fog and gaslights.
Max Damashek is a bedazzled Oliver, who allows himself to be thrown about with ease in the high energy group numbers Food Glorious Food and Consider Yourself and sings his solos, Who Will Buy? And Where is Love? with an endearing, bell-like sincerity that tugs at any mother’s heartstrings. Kids will like him. The kid’s got clarity, pathos and conviction. Max does not play Oliver as a precocious scamp and troublemaker. The child actor-singer plays him as Oliver has just come to the orphanage and is unwise in the ways of street life. He shows spunk in the part as the show unwinds.
Eric Shelley, The Artful Dodger, left, with Stephen Berger as Fagin. Photo by John Vecchiola. Courtesy, Westcheser Broadway Theatre.
Oliver’s naivete to pickpocketing is more than compensated for by Eric Shelley as The Artful Dodger, whose strutting and wiseacre antics play off with high skullduggery and chemistry with the masterful villainy of Stephen Berger’s Fagin. Berger’s creation of the master of thieves wins over the audience with his signature tune, Pick a Pocket or Two, and dominates the stage when he is on it. Berger’s Fagin is a little Cyril Richard as Captain Hook, and plays the cackling villainy of Fagin, having fun with it.
In fact, the whole cast is having fun with this show, and it is infectious. They romp up the aisles into the audience. Perch on parapets in the audience, even winding up one number in the audience. The fun they have on stage makes the audience enjoy themselves.
Brian Sgambati as the killer Billy Sikes is menacing and delivers such an discomforting vicious Sikes, that the audience just knows his relationship with Nancy, played by Michelle Dawson, the lady of the streets with a heart of gold (a staple of Dickens’ central casting), is not going to be good for her.
Brassy, Baudy, Belting Michelle Dawson as Nancy with Ensemble. Photo by John Vecchiolla. Courtesy, Westchester Broadway Theatre.
Michelle Dawson, however gets the biggest hands for her powerful As Long as He Needs Me, and the pathos of her I Will Do Anything. She’s saucy, she’s tough, she’s loyal, loving a man who treats her badly, but not being able to help herself. Her contralto is searing and gets to you in the heart with a quality of emotion delivered by Judy Garland. Her solos lock you in and make you feel her pain and you know how she feels.
As with every Westchester Broadway Theatre production, the supporting parts are gems.
Nora Mae Lyng and Steve Liebman as Widow Corney and Mr. Bumble, the orphanage operators, get appreciative laughs in Mr. Bumble’s attempted seduction of her in the goofy I Shall Scream. Mr. Liebman’s touting Oliver on the streets of London is underscored by Mr. Liebman’s sneering and meaningful delivery of Boy For Sale. It makes you think, as does young Mr. Damashek’s Where is Love? At Mr.Sowerberry’s Undertaker Parlor, where the dour, somewhat tipsy mortician accepts Oliver as an apprentice. Keith Perry’s undertaker is done well, gets great laughs and he with Liebman and Patti Mariano as Mrs. Sowerberry chuckle the audience through That’s Your Funeral.
Local Children Perform. Photo by WPCNR StageCam
The chorus of dancers delivering Consider Yourself, Oom-Pah-Pah and Who Will Buy troups through with such energy and voice that the show moves along sprightly. The cockney accents are hard to understand, but that may be my hearing, as my female companion said.
The climax to Oliver! is one of the most inventive sets this reviewer has seen WBT create. London bridge appears. Fog appears. A Sherlock Holmes atmosphere is induced for the high drama finale, which results in a murder (parents note).
Theatre Lobby Was Packed by Opening night celebrities and distinguished members of the press. Photo by WPCNR StageCam
WPCNR also has to give a tip of the baton to the orchestra conduced by Tom Kenaston. The bouncy articulated score was played seamlessly with expressive solos, crisp tone and gusto, by Mr. Kenaston, David Truskinoff, Ken Ross, Arnold Gottlieb, Lewis Wyatt, Ron Kozak, Jason Ingram.
WBT this season is running basically oldies but goodies: Tony Award winning musicals of the past that are great, ingratiating, hard-working unique productions of these “Oldies But Goodies.” They are great introductions to musical theatre for kids.
All’s well that ends well in Oliver!
Oliver! plays through July 2 at the WBT. More on the show at www.broadwaytheatre.com. Photo by WPCNR StageCam.
