ONE OF the most popular musicals of all time will be presented by Sutton’s Green Hut Theatre Company this spring.

They will recreate the dangerous alleys and taverns of Charles Dickens’s Victorian London for the family show Oliver! at Sutton Village Hall.

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.

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

Oliver has grown up in a provincial workhouse with no idea who his parents were, and after yet another run-in with Mr Bumble the beadle he is sent to work for a funeral director.

Mistreated, he runs away to London where he falls in with the gang of young pickpockets led by Fagin.

It is a dangerous world, inhabited by the likes of ruthless robber Bill Sykes, with only Bill’s kind-hearted girlfriend Nancy to help him.

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.

The musical has been a huge stage hit on both sides of the Atlantic since its West End debut in 1960, as well as becoming a hugely popular, multi-Oscar-winning film in 1968.

The Sutton group is this year celebrating its 90th birthday, which as well as Oliver! will include a party for past and present members in May, a staging of The Vicar of Dibley 2 in September, and the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk in December.

Oliver! will be staged at Sutton Village Hall from April 18 to 21 at 7.15pm. Call 01535 632289 for details.