BOURNE AGAIN:
A MUSICAL RECLAMATION
IN GLORIOUS MINOR KEY

After a long absence from the West End, Oliver! has returned with the force of a Victorian street gang bursting through fog-shrouded London alleys. Matthew Bourne‘s revival of Lionel Bart‘s beloved musical at the Gielgud Theatre is nothing short of theatrical gold, a production that honors both its literary origins and its creator’s deeply personal connection to the material, all the while delivering an evening of superb entertainment.

Company of Oliver!

The journey from Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel to Lionel Bart’s 1960 musical represents one of the most fascinating transformations in theatrical history. Dickens’ original work, for all its social consciousness, was marred by the antisemitic caricature of Fagin, a product of its era’s prejudices. What makes Bart’s adaptation so remarkable is how this Jewish composer transformed a problematic character into something far more complex and human.

Oscar Conlon-Morrey and Company

Bart, born Lionel Begleiter to Eastern European Jewish immigrants in London’s East End, understood poverty and marginalization intimately. His free adaptation didn’t merely musicalize Dickens’ plot; it infused the story with a lived understanding of what it meant to exist on society’s periphery. In Bart’s hands, Fagin becomes not a villain but a survivor, a patriarch protecting his makeshift family of outcasts in a hostile world.

Company of Oliver!

The composer’s own heritage allowed him to reclaim and reimagine a character that had long stood as a symbol of antisemitic stereotyping, transforming him into a figure of genuine complexity and, yes, dignity.

This cultural alchemy is perhaps most evident in songs like “Reviewing the Situation,” where Bart’s klezmer-influenced melodies give Fagin’s internal monologue a musical language that speaks to Jewish experience while remaining universally accessible. Sixty-five years later, every number remains a hit because Bart didn’t just write songs; he wrote emotional truths set to unforgettable melodies.

Odo Rowntree-Bailly and Billy Jenkins

As someone who grew up hearing those same Eastern European musical phrases in my own family’s home, watching Simon Lipkin‘s extraordinary Fagin felt like witnessing a masterclass in cultural reclamation. Rather than tiptoeing around the character’s ethnic identity, Lipkin embraces it fully by creating a clearly Jewish character who at one point blurts out “Oy brokh” (what a disaster) in Yiddish. His Fagin is part pirate, part patriarch, a figure who manages to embody both ruthlessness and genuine kindness, making his den a refuge in an unforgiving world. Lipkin’s charismatic performance finds the perfect balance between comedy and complexity, delivering “Reviewing the Situation” with eye-rolling complicity while never letting us forget the character’s fundamental humanity.

Odo Rowntree-Bailly and Jamie Birkett

There’s something deeply moving about watching a Jewish performer take ownership of this role, transforming what was once a crude stereotype into a fully realized person. When Lipkin walks off with Billy Jenkins‘ swaggering Artful Dodger, there’s real affection between the pair that becomes profoundly moving. This isn’t just good acting; it’s cultural healing happening in real time.

Mr. Bourne brings to this revival the same revolutionary spirit that transformed Swan Lake and Cinderella, though here his genius lies not in radical reimagining but in distillation and deepening. A choreographer who understands that movement is meaning, Bourne creates a production where every gesture serves the story’s emotional architecture.

Stephen Matthews and Jamie Birkett

His background in dance proves invaluable in capturing the essence of Victorian street life. The orphans scrubbing the stage in fierce unison before Oliver’s moment of frozen courage; the boys in “Consider Yourself” moving with gestures both fierce and childlike as they imitate horses. These aren’t just choreographed numbers but windows into character and circumstance. Bourne’s mastery lies in his ability to shift seamlessly between broad, bright dance scenes bursting with life and powerfully arresting moments of stillness that allow the story’s darker themes to breathe.

Simon Lipkin

Working with co-director Jean-Pierre van der Spuy and designer Lez Brotherston, Bourne has created a more intimate version than previous blockbuster stagings while losing none of the material’s epic scope. The production’s genius lies in its meticulous attention to detail. No performer in the background is merely marking time, thus creating a living, breathing world that feels both authentic and theatrical.

Shanay Holmes proves equally remarkable as Nancy, transcending the traditional “tart with a heart” stereotype to create a fully realized woman caught in circumstances beyond her control. Her rendition of “As Long as He Needs Me,” performed after being brutally beaten, becomes a testament to both the character’s resilience and Holmes’s exceptional artistry. She brings intelligence and depth to what could easily become a one-note role, bringing the house down in the process.

Shanay Holmes and Billy Jenkins

Aaron Sidwell‘s Bill Sikes strikes the perfect note of menace tinged with damage, while Cian Eagle-Service (one of four rotating Olivers) brings wide-eyed warmth and vocal power to the title role. His “Where Is Love?” soars majestically, reminding us why this simple plea remains one of musical theatre’s most moving moments. The supporting ensemble, from Oscar Conlon-Morrey‘s chillingly comic Bumble to the entire company, creates a world populated by vivid, three-dimensional characters rather than theatrical types.

Katy Secombe and Oscar Conlon-Morrey

Stephen Metcalfe’s new orchestrations, conducted with bright sensitivity by Graham Hurman, make the most of what were likely budgetary constraints. While these smaller-scale arrangements may have been born of financial necessity rather than artistic choice, they find unexpected depths in Bart’s melodies that larger orchestrations might obscure, allowing both the Jewish musical influences and the music hall traditions to shine through with crystalline clarity.

Aaron Sidwell

Combined with Paule Constable and Ben Jacobs‘s painterly lighting that sculpts the stage with billowing smoke, the production achieves something both sumptuous and stark, a perfect backdrop for the story’s emotional complexity.

Lez Brotherston‘s set of gantries and iron stairways turning on a revolve captures both the bustle and vastness of Victorian London while allowing intimate vignettes to emerge within the urban sprawl.

Simon Lipkin

This is the quintessential London musical, distilled from Dickens and filtered through a mid-20th century understanding of the capital’s shifting social tides. In Bourne’s hands, it becomes an evening of song and dance that doesn’t shy away from themes of social inequality that echo powerfully today.

What emerges is a production that respects its source material while breathing new life into every moment. This Oliver! doesn’t attempt reinvention for its own sake, but instead finds fresh truth in familiar material. It’s a richly realized triumph that reminds us why some stories endure and why, in the right hands, they can speak across centuries to touch the heart anew.

The Company

By the time the final bows arrived, I found myself wiping away tears I hadn’t expected. This isn’t just nostalgia for a beloved musical; it’s the joy of watching artists transform pain into beauty, prejudice into understanding, and a flawed piece of literature into something that celebrates rather than diminishes Jewish identity.

Consider yourself consummately entertained.

Company of Oliver!

photos by Johan Persson

Oliver!
Cameron Mackintosh and Chichester Festival Theatre production
Gielgud Theatre
booking through 29 March 2026
for tickets, visit Oliver!