I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.
I saw the City Centers Encores! production of Oliver! On May 6, 2023. Encores! productions traditionally run for only two weeks (although in 2024 they’ve increased that to three), and I managed to see the opening Saturday matinee performance, which included a cast-and-crew “talkback” after the show. With Encores! runs of Into the Woods and Parade having transferred to Broadway shortly after closing, I had hopes that this would follow suit, but we’re well into 2024 with no announcements so that’s probably not happening. A shame because this production deserved a larger audience.
The character of Fagin, and the original performances by Ron Moody and Clive Revill (we had the movie and Broadway cast albums in my house growing up, and I loved both), makes such a large impression on the audience that it is easy to forget Fagin doesn’t appear until near the end of Act One. Raul Esparza’s Fagin was equal parts gleeful and woebegone, every number a real treat (none more so than his “Reviewing the Situation,” where he interacts with the first violin as another character (all in his head, of course). I realized during the talkback that Esparza was fighting something (a head cold? The flu?) but you would not have known it from the performance he gave.
Tam Mutu’s Bill Sikes was perhaps the scariest interpretation of the character for me since Oliver Reed in the 1968 film. (Oliver Reed had a habit of scaring the pants off me as a kid – I’ve still not been able re-watch The Curse of the Werewolf. I really should…) Brad Oscar and Mary Testa provided pitch-perfect comic relief as Mister Bumble and Widow Corney (as did Thom Sesma and Rashidra Scott as the funereal Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry), not necessarily easy in a show that gets as dark as Oliver! does. Still, Oscar and Testa’s “I Shall Scream” was dysfunctional courtship at its finest, and as I am a fan of dark humor, I really enjoyed Sesma and Scott’s “That’s Your Funeral.”
But the standout among the adults, for me, was Lilli Cooper as Nancy. Her “As Long as He Needs Me” must be the new standard to strive for when performing the song. Her Nancy is strong, self-aware (she knows exactly what kind of relationship she’s in with Sikes), but also stuck in the pattern society allows for a woman of her socioeconomic status and making the best of terrible things. Her “It’s a Fine Life” and “Oom-Pah-Pah” are full of the joy of life, and her interactions with Oliver, Dodger and the boys in “I’d Do Anything” were as loving and sweet as Fagin’s during “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two” and “Be Back Soon” are self-serving and skeevy.
Speaking of the kids. Julian Lerner’s comedic timing made it easy to be charmed by his Artful Dodger, the leader of Fagin’s group of extremely energetic and talented group of boy dancer/singers (who were all wonderful, but I have to call out the incredibly acrobatic Michael Cash, whose in-place high-speed back-flips during “Who Will Buy” got a huge response from the audience when he was done. I have no idea if he can tap-dance, but if Billy Elliot comes back to Broadway before Cash gets too much older, he’s got to be a shoo-in for the lead). Benjamin Pajak’s performance as Oliver was every bit as innocent and lovable as one would want, with a crystal clear, emotive voice. His “Where Is Love” stopped the show, and everyone around me had tears in their eyes (including me). Oliver, like Annie and Matilda and Billy Elliot, is on stage for most of the show, and Pajak shouldered that responsibility with energy, poise, and genuine emotion. He more than held his own on stage with some Broadway powerhouses, and I’m sure he’ll be working consistently (as he seems to be with showcases and staged readings of various musicals featured on his Instagram).
I also really enjoyed the talkback after the Saturday matinee performance (photo below). I cannot recall the name of the City Center producer who read questions submitted in advance by audience members, but the talkback featured director Lear DeBessonet, musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell, most of the adult leads (Esparza, Cooper, Mutu, Oscar, and Testa), and Michael Cash representing the kids in the cast. (I assume Pajak and Lerner, being leads, had mandatory relaxation time between performances.) The cast were frank in their discussion of the darker themes of the play – misogyny, child abuse (Oliver is sold into child labor; the orphan boys are trained by Fagin to steal), domestic abuse (Sikes’ physical and emotional abuse of Nancy is not downplayed or avoided, although thankfully her death occurs off-stage), among others, and DeBessonet was open about her discussions with the cast and creative crew in how to present those sensitive issues to a modern audience. Esparza and DeBessonet also talked about how the show portrays Fagin’s Jewishness in comparison to the original novel (in which Dickens employed every horrible stereotype he knew, and usually referred to the character simply as “the Jew”), and how they worked to not make this Fagin a stereotype. Esparza’s story about being at the sitzprobe (first meeting of cast and orchestra), hearing the violin intro to “Reviewing the Situation” and saying “Oh, a Klezmer band! So we’re doing this…” got a great reaction from the audience (and as mentioned, his interactions with the first chair violin were perfect).
Oliver! is one of my favorite shows, for the music alone, and a sentimental favorite because I auditioned for (but was not cast in) a production at An Evening Dinner Theater back in the early 80s. Yes, the book has problems (Act One is almost completely songs, which is fine, but the transitions between those songs are awkward at best; and again, there’s those dark themes that aren’t explored as fully as they could have been). But I’m glad to have seen the Encores! production with this terrific cast.