Musical twist on Oliver from Sutton Green Hut

The village’s Green Hut Theatre Company will present the perennial favourite musical Oliver! in Sutton Village Hall.

Oliver! is the flagship show for the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Green Hut Theatre Company, formerly Sutton Amateurs.

The amateur theatre group will recreate the dangerous alleys and taverns of Charles Dickens’s Victorian London for the family show.

Keighley boys Gianluca Jennings and Alex Volpe are playing the central roles of orphan runaway Oliver Twist and streetwise pickpocket the Artful Dodger.

The pickpockets and workhouse children are played by a mix of young new recruits and members of the Sutton Green Hut Youth Theatre.

Likewise, the adult principal roles are being played by both veteran Green Hut members and newcomers.

The story centres on orphan boy Oliver Twist who has grown up in the workhouse with no idea who his parents were.

Persuaded to become “the boy who asked for more”, the hungry boy is sent off to work in the creepy surroundings of a funeral parlour.

Facing more mistreatment, Oliver runs away to London, but his new friend Dodger is not as nice as he appears to be, and he falls in with Fagin’s gang of pickpockets.

There are dangerous episodes with the likes of local criminal Bill Sykes, but there is also hope in the shape of well-to-do Mr Brownlow and the truth about the orphan boy’s origins.

Oliver Twist or the Parish Boy’s Progress is Charles Dickens’s second novel, and was first published as a serial in 1837–39.

The novel is notable for its unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as for exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid-19th century.

An early example of the social novel, Oliver Twist explored the hypocrisies of his time, including child labour, street children and the recruitment of children as criminals.

The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child labourer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s, as well as Dickens’s own youthful experiences.

Oliver Twist has been the subject of numerous adaptations, most famously the hugely-successful stage musical Oliver and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 film version.

Oliver!, written by Lionel Bart, features famous songs like Food Glorious Food, As Long As He Needs Me, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two and Oom-Pah-Pah.

Oliver! was the first musical adaptation of a famous Charles Dickens work to become a stage hit, following two TV adaptations of A Christmas Carol in the 1950s.

The plot of Dickens’ original novel is considerably simplified for the musical, with Fagin represented more as a comic character than as a villain, and large parts of the later plot being left out.

Oliver! premiered in the West End at the New Theatre in June 1960 and ran for 2,618 performances.

The original cast featured Ron Moody as Fagin, Georgia Brown as Nancy, and Barry Humphries in the supporting role of Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker.

Keith Hamshere (the original Oliver) became a Hollywood still is photographer for films like Star Wars, while Martin Horsey (the original Dodger) became an actor/director.

The cast also included 60s pop star Davy Jones as the Artful Dodger, comedian and TV historian Tony Robinson as one of the Workhouse boys, and John Bluthal – who became The Vicar of Dibley’s Frank Pickle – as Fagin.

Michael Caine unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Bill Sykes.

In the USA, the musical previewed in Los Angeles, and following a national tour opened on Broadway in 1963. It closed on November 14, 1964, after 774 performances.

The Broadway production was a critical success and received ten Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, Best Actor and Best actress in a musical.

There have been numerous modern revivals including a 2009 production where the actors playing Nancy was chosen through BBC talent show I’d Do Anything.

The cast also included Rowan Atkinson, Omid Djalili and Russ Abbot playing Fagin.

Lionel Bart’s musical was brought to the screen in 1968 by director Carol Reed.

At the Academy Awards Oliver! was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture, Best Director, and an Honorary Award for choreographer Onna White.

The British Film Institute ranked Oliver! the 77th greatest British film of the 20th century, and last year a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine ranked it the 69th best British film ever.

The Green Hut bosses looked round for an appropriately atmospheric venue for their publicity pictures and settled on East Riddlesden Hall.

With permission from the National Trust, the actors were photographed in costume inside both the 17th century manor house and its shadowy tithe barn.

Soon after finishing Oliver!, the Green Hut team will begin work on their September play, The Vicar of Dibley 2.

This is the sequel to The Vicar of Dibley, the stage adaptation of Richard Curtis’s hugely-popular BBC sitcom which was performed to great success in Sutton two years ago.

The same cast is returning for the sequel, which has been adapted from the last-ever Christmas episodes of the series, which starred Dawn French.

By now female vicar Geraldine has truly settled into the parish of Dibley, loved by all, but will she herself find love?

Green Hut has chosen Jack and the Beanstalk as its family pantomime for this year, with five performances including a Saturday matinee planned for December.

All Oliver! pictures by Bryan Blackie.

* Oliver! will be staged at Sutton Village Hall from Wednesday to Saturday, April 18 to 21, at 7.15pm.

Email suttongreenhuttheatre@gmail.com or call 01535 632289 to book tickets.