BackStage Utah

... and it looks like there's a talkback after the matinee this Sat, Oct 9th.

A Different Oliver!

Start with a great cast, sprightly choreography, creative sets and staging, and you get a very attractive production of one of the great favorites of musical theater. Cayden Maynes takes the title role with a clear and lovely voice and good stage presence. Adrien Swenson is a powerful and attractive Nancy, well-matched with Kit Anderton�s Bill (why is it so easy to find terrifying Bill Sikeses? Can this be healthy?). As Fagin, Max Robinson is�well, Max.

Director Anne Stewart Mark uses the recent Oliver! revival, rather than the 50-year old version we know better. Naturally, there are going to be some unfamiliar elements, and particularly if you only know the movie. In addition, she seems to have gone back to the original novel, adding considerable dialog that is not in any stage version. Some of that doesn�t seem to quite work out. In the novel, after Bill kills Nancy, he is haunted by her eyes into dementia. But that takes days, not the seconds it gets here, and it is hard to even understand that that is what is happening before the fatal shot.

There is also the addition of a huge section for Fagin in the first act (unless this was simply an extended Max Robinson ad lib). Is that what it took to get Max to play? It�s a high price to pay, especially since it slows down the action and adds 15 minutes to the length of the play. It does get us through the night, but I�m not sure it�s worth it.

This Oliver! sounds different as well. The orchestra is small (and immensely talented, as always at The Grand), but Music Director Kevin Mathie (quite simply a national treasure!) has re-written the entire score, making it much darker than we are used to. That is particularly noticeable in the trio reprising �Fine Life.� Fun and games the first time round, bitter and cynical in reprise, with more than a little desperation.

The Grand is a large stage, and this production makes full use of the space, filling it admirably. It�s a large theater as well, and it is lamentable that the seats are unlikely to be filled to capacity. Audiences will miss an opportunity to see a mind-stretching, ear-stretching production of a great musical.

Make sure that you see it!

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