Oliver Reviews

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We went to see Oliver! yesterday afternoon at the Drury Lane Theatre, London and were extremely disappointed by it. Oliver is one of our favourite musicals, but we have seen local amateur productions of a much higher standard than this. We felt that a lot of the vocals were weak, a couple of the characters were masking northern accents poorly (particularly Mr Bumble) - and that all in all the best actor by far was the dog!

The boy playing the Artful Dodger was quite believable in his role, but he did 'gabble' his words at times. The young boy 'Nipper' was good too but Oliver himself had no stage presence, sang out of tune in places and was disappointing.

Whilst I like Rowan Atkinson as a performer generally, I do agree with the review here which says he seemed to be trying to turn the show into a pantomime - he was most definitely Rowan Atkinson and had little credibility as Fagin, and does not have a good singing voice - after all it is a musical!!

Jodie Prenger as Nancy was one of the better performers, but her part in 'Its a Fine Life' was weak.

To finish on a positive note, the set design, construction and changes were amazing!

hisfirstime's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Forget the whinging wine toffs who rave on about the total lack of historical credibility, and complain that Lionel Bart washes away Dickin's sad tale with song... Oliver is a masterpiece!
The show is fantastic, and Rowan Atkinson fans will feel like kids in a lolly shop!
A show I will tick off as one of my life highlights!

cawright's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Very disappointing. We had tickets for Oliver for a year, voted for Jodie and had good seats, so we were looking forward to seeing the show. However, within the first act, I could see that it had been ruined, I kept hoping that it was going to get better but it didnt. New bits and songs were added in, which isnt Oliver, it seemed that the Artful dodger was not strong enough and kept forgetting his words. There was so much noise in the background, you couldnt always here what was being said o ...

Justmyopinion's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Those less familiar with Oliver will love it. The kids, the music, the amazing sets.In fact the sets were so good they almost upstaged everything else. Great choreography and ensemble numbers. Good orchestrations. Jodie Prenger was much better than many critics have allowed us to believe. She's obviously easing into the role. Oh and Bullseye was brilliantly trained!! They'll enjoy the knees up Oom-Pah-Pah feel of the whole piece. They'll love the masses of kids and the show's sheer joie de ...

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We were initially disappointed to arrive at the theatre and find that Jodie was not performing due to illness, but the "Alternative Nancy", Tamsin was a more than adequate replacement. If you go on a night when she is performing you will not be disappointed.
The show was brilliant from start to finish, I cannot praise it highly enough. All the kids are fantastic, the adult characters believable. the musical arrangements among the best I've heard.
All the positive comments you've heard about Row ...

grayling38's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Everything. Set was amazing, all the cast were perfect, Rowan Atkinson as Fagin was superb.Go and see Oliver!

rhicks156's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Although Oliver was good, and Rowan Atkinson was very witty as Fagin, I felt the second half was much quicker than the first in how the story comes out and it becomes quite hard to keep up. I thought the first half was just better generally. I havn't seen many musicals and Oliver! falls in third behind Joseph and Blood Brothers.

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We had excellent seats, good views etc., and settled down to enjoy the show. Jodi was not my choice but i admit she made a good fist of it. Rowan Atkinson was a shock, he did have truly great moments and had he built on them it would have been the best performance of Fagin ever, sadly he slipped into Blackadder and Mr,Bean, even acknowledging the audience at one point and turning the performance into a pantomime.

gillettsj's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Overall, the production was very good. The children were excellent, especially The Artful Dodger. Unfortunately Oliver was extremely weak and paled into insignificance when singing with the other children. Jodie Prenger gave a strong performance especially when singing 'If Only He Needs Me". Although Rowan Atkinson was, as always, very good, it was a mix between Blackadder and Mr Bean!

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We were delighted to get seats in Box N at the back of the Grand Circle for the matinee performance on the 31st December. Unfortunately the overhang from the Grand Balcony above us obscured the top 6ft or so of the set.

This upper portion of the set is used periodically throughout the show for some musical numbers and to emphasize Bridges or to set the street level apart from the underworld inhabited by Fagin and the gang.

Overall though it was still a wonderful piece of musical theatre, The ...

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Fagin was fabulous of course, as everyone mentions. I loved "Who will buy" and all the big numbers as they filled the space and lifted the spirits. Was Fagin and Nancy's show rather than ensemble piece - Bill Sykes hardly got a look-in, which was a pity. Where was Dodger when Fagin walked off in the final scene? (Rather changed the ending). Very good show although the seats up in the gods were scarily vertiginous.

hopefull52's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Whole cast were superb, but Rowan Atkinson was just on another level, if I have to be honest I felt Iwas watching Rowan playing Ron Moody playing Fagin, it was just that good. Watch for the awards rolling in.
Mr & Mrs Bumble were two other charachters who for me particularly stood out.
The set was marvelous and really took on the look and feel of old London.
Can not praise it high enough Loved it.

Guest's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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The scenery was excellent and captured the essence and atmosphere of Dicken's Victorian London.
Rowan Atkinson's Fagin made it for me.
Overall, the cast were excellent and all the familiar songs were great. I'd certainly recommended it to anyone as my 9 year old daughter loved it and wants to go again.
Overall, an excellent slick production with a great cast - so I'll definitely try to see again.

MILLYMOLL's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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The most enjoyable two and a half hours we have had in years! The children (ophans!) were amazing - very highly polished performances from all of them. Harry Stott was Oliver in the performance we saw - he was excellent. Rowan Atkinson's performance as Fagin was truly outstanding - Of course our children know him well ..as either Jonny English or Mr Bean and couldn't wait to see "someone famous"!
As this was our Christmas family treat, we had tickets in the stalls - NOT CHEAP, BUT they were well ...

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I saw the same production 3 times in the 90's at the Palladium, with Jonathan Pryce, Robert Lindsay and Barry Humphries as Fagin. Pryce and Lindsay were particulary good, but Rowan Atkinson's portrayal of Fagin usurps them. The set/scenery has improved too and I have to say that Jodie Prenger's perfomance of "As long as he needs me" was quite brilliant.
I will being doing my best to get tickets to go again!

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Oliver is an excellent show with a couple of songs that were new to me - "Your Funeral" was very funny. I've read other reviews complementing Rowan Atkinson and I think you need to be much closer to the stage to get his wonderful shtick. No opera glasses on my row in the circle!