Oliver!
Oliver! By Lionel Bart
Directed by Tim Evaniki
Musical Direction by Kevin Kelly
Choreographed by Joyce Lemos
Starring Marina Jurica, Eric Pinder and Aalic Anderson
Starving Artists Studios in association with Central Florida Community Arts
Winter Springs High School, Winter Springs, FL</strong>
Victorian workhouses must have been a blast, what with all the singing and dancing and vegetarian gruel. Tonight we meet 30 small children who will be spared from the reality of Dickensian living but do their best to put it on stage for our entertainment. Up front we have Aalic Anderson as the titular “Oliver,” he’s small and his projection is a bit low, but he’s cute as a bug and soldiers though this full length, complete with his own solo number and plenty of dancing, dashing and danger. When we meet him, he’s in the workhouse under rotund Mr. Bumble (Thomas Limbacher); Bumble flirts with his house keeper Mrs. Corney (Wendy Starkand). Their romance is train wreck, but Bumble and Corney decide Oliver is a problem and they sell him to an undertaker, only to have him escape in to the demimonde of London. Here the Artful Dodger (Brittany Koscinski) hooks him up with Fagin’s (Pinder) theft ring, and Oliver’s life is never the same. Like all good Victorian misery stories, there’s a happy ending involving a locket, a midnight rendezvous, and the sort of carelessness with small children that always motivates Victorian melodrama.
While the chorus was young and hard to hear, the adults were excellent. Ms. Jurica played Nancy, the moral heart of the story. She also got the best songs and the best crowd response, the Boisterous “Oom-Pah-Pah” gave her voice a solid showcase which was enhanced in that great battered woman ballad “As Long As He Needs Me”. The person doing that needing was the barely constrained Bill Sykes (Adam McCabe,) he was rough and tough and not afraid to slap anyone around. Mr. Bumble did a fine job on “Boy for Sale”, but it was Eric Pindar who stole the show with his uber Hassidic beard and “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two” and the realpolitik ballad “Reviewing The Situation.” This entire enterprise was backed with a live 21 piece orchestra, and the sound in this High School auditorium was very impressive. This is a family friendly classic, and the whole show was plenty of fun for everyone.
For more information on Starving Artists Studios lease visit starvingartiststudios.com.
For other Central Florida Community Arts events, please visit cfcarts.com
