Theater Review - "Oliver!"

THEATER REVIEW

“Oliver!”

Produced by: Theatre Three, Port Jefferson, thru June 27.

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur

Kiernan Urso (left) as Oliver- Jeffrey Sanzel plays FaginOne of the unique rewards associated with reviewing Port Jefferson’s Theatre Three productions is presented even before the curtain goes up on Production Designer Randall Parsons’ invariably functional sets: The press packet always includes a 40 to 50-page, single spaced, liberally illustrated treatise on every aspect of the play at hand. The Director includes in this valuable amenity, the show’s history along with an overview of the story itself.

That synopsis alone would be worth the price of admission for theater aficionados generally…and for students and working reporters in particular.

But Director Jeffrey Sanzel always goes the extra mile in preparing these abstracts. In the case of the current Theatre Three offering, Oliver!, for instance, not only are we treated to a written précis spotlighting the mores in mid-eighteenth century England, but the common colloquialisms, politics, and laws of the day are also clearly defined… and in the case of dress and legal tender, examples are actually shown. One need not possess the imagination of Charles Dickens to recognize the value of such background material when one is called upon to interpret Dickensian activity on stage.

But to the current production:

I have long ago stopped assuming that a given tragic play (The Diary of Anne Frank), contemporary musical (The Boy from Oz), farce (Don’t Dress for Dinner) or classic adaptation (A Christmas Carol) – cannot be topped. One no sooner makes such a judgement than along comes another boffo Theatre Three offering in the genre in question … and the bar of excellence is raised even higher. Such a play is Oliver! The Lionel Bart musical that runs on Main Street in Port Jeff is not to be missed.

Why?

Well, for one thing, if you overlook this gem, you will be depriving yourself of an entertainment treat the likes of which this critic has seldom seen matched on a Long Island stage. If you thought, for instance, that indefatigable actor/director Jeffrey Sanzel was outstanding as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (and he was), Long Island’s reigning king of theater is even better as the dancing, singing, sly (but charmingly vulnerable) Fagin in Oliver!

This is not Fagin’s production exclusively, however.

In 2013, Encore Award-winning Jennifer Collester Tully stole the show with her interpretation of Madam Thernardier in Les Miz. In Theatre Three’s current staging, Collester Tully demonstrates even more convincingly that she can play on our heartstrings as if they were her personal harp. With her big, sweet, versatile voice this veteran showman renders the score’s most memorable ballad, “As Long as He Needs Me,” with fantastic range and simpatico. In both the number’s introduction and reprise, Ms. Collester Tully evoked tears from even veteran theatergoers, and won the most fervent audience reaction in an opening night filled with them. Hopefully her young son James, himself an actor, was in the audience to hear his mother cheered.

This is a large troupe (some 25 named characters) and there wasn’t one player who seemed miscast. Robert W. Henderson Jr.’s lighting, Peter Casdia’s sound design, and in particular, Chakira Doherty’s wonderfully appropriate costumes, left nothing to be desired. Nor did Jackson Kohl’s musical direction. Indeed, violinist Marni Harris made me wonder if Fiddler on the Roof might not be a logical future candidate built around Sanzel and the obvious virtuoso.

But that’s a question for another day. For now, it seems enough to speculate on how the producers plan to accommodate the throngs likely to emulate Saturday’s sold-out crowd, and fill comfortable old Theatre Three between now and June 27^th.

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Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of ten novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. Ladouceur’s newest thriller THE QUANTUM SYNDROME is patterned on the Atlanta child murders of the 80s. His eleventh book, SEQUEL, explores the odd relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

Comments

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This definitely made my day a memorable one. - Jennifer Collester Tully

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Reading about Theatre Three's "OLIVER!" was a lovely experience in and of itself. - G. Myers