WHO WILL BUY IT?
Endearing and sometimes exhilarating in its zest to please, 5-Star Theatricals‘ heartfelt but uneven revival of Oliver!, staged like community theater on steroids by Kari Hayter, only occasionally earns its exclamation point. The good news is that even with all-over-the-map dialects, so-so choreography, milquetoast drama, and mixed performance styles from Broadway caliber to ridiculous high camp, the show and its amazing child performers manage to sell the many wonderful tunes, most of which you will be singing long after the curtain falls. It’s great to see a huge cast, and the full orchestra led by Anthony Lucca, is a real treat.
Janna Cardia, Kayden Alexander Koshelev and Andrew Metzger
The company of 5-Star Theatrical’s Oliver!
Based on Charles Dickens’ beloved novel Oliver Twist, Lionel Bart’s 1960 smash hit stage adaptation (book, music, and lyrics) takes the audience on a journey through Victorian England where an orphan boy, Oliver, embarks on a quest from workhouse to central London to find love and family. Which is perfect fodder for a musical: Dickens is a lot like Victor Hugo. As with the musical Les Miserables, Oliver! replays an entire novel at warp speed, but here — with a rented one-piece set — the opportunity to depict a swarming cityscape and gloomy back alleys and bridges goes unseized.
Mark Capri (center) and, Kayden Alexander Koshelev (right) with the company
Despite a plot rife with sexual abuse, child exploitation, and murder, Oliver! is surprisingly feel-good. And like Annie, it’s a rags-to-riches tale of an orphan made good despite manifest evil. Oliver (terrific Kayden Alexander Koshelev, with a pure boy soprano that makes “Who Will Buy?”heart-rending), whose innate goodness is assumed rather than developed, just needs enough pluck and luck to outwit the dastardly robber renegade Fagin (Mark Capri, adequate, but with no violent edge whatsoever) and the cruel thief Bill Sikes (the not-so-threatening Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper). Oliver does find comfort with Sikes’s much-abused, kindhearted, maternal moll, Nancy, played by the terrific Monika Peña, who blows the roof off the house with her version of “As Long As He Needs Me.”
Monika Peña (center) and the company
Along with the leader of Fagin’s gang of pickpockets and their leader The Artful Dodger (Alkaio Thiele, a real winner in song, dialect, dance and character), the colorful cast includes the wacky Widow Corney (Janna Cardia) and her wooer the aptly named Mr. Bumble (Andrew Metzger), the orphanage caretaker who sells Oliver to undertakers Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry (Alex Boling and Clare Snodgrass), the Sowerberry’s bullying daughter Charlotte (Rianny Vasquez), and a heartless hired hand, Noah Claypool (Harry Cho).
Alkaio Thiele and Kayden Alexander Koshelev
Alkaio Thiele (left) and Kayden Alexander Koshelev (center) with the company
Oliver! is a prettified version of Dickens’s indictment of the treatment of the poor in early Victorian England. Lionel Bart has converted the novel into what can be called a happy show with a few dramatic moments, something the 1968 film changed for the better. Here, the drama and threat in the book scenes (which feel rushed) is way underplayed, making this feel more appropriate for a day with the family than for discerning theatergoers. And there’s nothin’ wrong with that: Newcomers of a young age will be thrilled — and possibly bit by the theater bug — when an amazing ensemble of kids sings “Be Back Soon.” And any adult is going to love Fagin’s late-in-life lament, “Reviewing the Situation,” which is a very funny and clever number. But if you’re looking for a great musical theater production, as you would find at The Marriott, Drury Lane, La Mirada, and other large houses that are musical-centric, going out of your way to Thousand Oaks isn’t a necessity.
Monika Peña and Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper
photos by Veronica Slavin
Oliver!
5-Star Theatricals
Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
ends on October 22, 2023
for tickets, call 800.745.3000 or visit 5-Star Theatricals
