Theater Review - " Oliver! "

THEATER REVIEW “Oliver!”

Presented by: Northport – E. Northport Community Theater - Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Huge cast takes the stage in Northport for “Oliver!” thru May 19

Who knew?

The Northport area has always been a hotbed of artistic activity in general, and legitimate theater in particular, but until Saturday night I had never seen the Northport – East Northport Community Theater in action. It is now obvious that this big, talented assembly of players is the real deal.

With Bette Silver producing and Jim Redding directing a vast company (only half of whom, alas, are shown here) the Brosnan Center in Northport has become home to the most ambitious staging of Lionel Bart’s “Oliver!” in recent memory.

The now-legendary musical version of Charles Dickens’ classic “Oliver Twist” can only fulfill its great promise when populated by a vast array of actors, especially children, and that’s what happens when this massive company takes the substantial stage at Northport’s Laurel Avenue School. The result is an “Oliver!” of the first order that runs thru May 19.

I’ve found that one tends to single out and fawn over youngsters who show a high degree of stage presence and singing ability. In this production we can’t do that; there are nearly a hundred such deserving kids in the ensemble. Indeed, one wonders where all these gifted children came from!

Thus, director Jim Redding gets the plaudits of this reviewer, and we’ll leave it to him to distribute kudos among the young people whom he has molded into a convincing, endearing gang of London pickpockets and assorted ragamuffins.

Some of the familiar songs from the 1963 triple Tony award-winning show (including Best Original Score) are among the greatest toe-tappers and heartbreakers of our time. Many will say that only “I Ain’t Down Yet” from “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “If He Walked Into My Life” introduced in “Mame” are the equals of “Consider Yourself” and “As Long As He Needs Me” in their respective categories. Significantly, “Oliver!” supplies both those memorable numbers, leaving the audience emotionally whipsawed and breathless. Clearly, director Redding has cast his performers well.

Doug Carney as the conniving (but in this production oddly sympathetic) “Fagin” and Jessica Rae Schaefer as a somewhat bawdy (though humorously so) “Nancy” are the play’s standouts. Carney is an already accomplished actor and vocalist, and Schaefer’s singing skills seem on the way to matching her own considerable acting talents. Both players are superb—Carney, however, is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

As for that raft of energetic kids, they are at their best when singing. Here’s why: There is just no way, it appears, to make children deliver their lines at an appropriately modest pace. They always talk too fast. I’ve known it to be true in hundreds of elementary, junior high, and high school productions, and even the biggest budget Broadway extravaganzas fall victim to the phenomenon occasionally. Luckily that accelerated delivery seldom knocks the youngsters out of character.

It would have been a shame if the gusto with which the “Oliver!” company performs had been diluted with thin music supplied by two or three instruments (or Heaven forbid, just a single piano), but no such malfeasance was permitted by the guiding lights behind this production. The vocalists in the show are accompanied by no fewer than fourteen musicians on strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments. Try to find that on Broadway for twenty bucks!

One last note: The title role of “Oliver!” was convincingly played last Saturday by Nikki Rampanelli. My grandmother Olivine would have been proud of her.

Award-winning Smithtown author Jeb Ladouceur has published seven novels. His theater reviews appear in dozens of L. I. newspapers. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “The Dealer” due this summer, Israeli extortionists threaten to destroy Hoover Dam demolishing the Las Vegas Strip - if casino operators don’t pay millions.