Oliver!

The Life of a Lady of Leisure in London continues with me ticking off another musical today, Oliver!  I would have love, love, LOVED to see Rowan Atkinson starring as Fagin but did not manage to book any tickets in time for his run. Boo.  But I can't really fault Griff Rhys Jones in the role.  Also, I realised that my Nancy (Kerry Ellis) was the same person who performed as Elphaba when I watched Wicked.  Oooh dat's good too.

I remember watching the movie as a kid but the more I thought about it, like in the case of Mary Poppins, I must have been sent to bed early because I don't recall what happened at the end.  Fagin also was very creepy and on par with the Child-Catcher of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang so maybe that's another reason why I never watched the entire film.  Nancy dies?!!??!  Wtf?!!

The best tickets I could get for today's matinee was on the Upper Tier.  Boo!  But I figured surely the performance wouldn't be booked out, so I'd have a good chance of being allocated a new seat.  I queried at the box office but was disappointed to be told that I would have to stay in my crappy seat because my ticket was purchased through a third party.  Boo.  I also now understand why my tickets weren't so great - matinees are full of kids on school excusions!  Duh.

Fine.  I presented my ticket to the usher and he told me that my seat was reassigned and so now I was closer to the stage.  Yay!

My view of the stage.  Yippee-yay-yay.  

My highlight 'Consider Yourself' and I do have to especially commend the performance of the kid who played the Artful Dodger. Also, I was surprised that they actually had a real dog on stage with Bill Sikes.  Animals on stage = winner.  Hehehe.  There was one particularly smutty scene which I didn't have a problem with but it's inclusion puzzled me as I would have thought it inappropriate for the largely under-12 audience.

Some footage of the London production.

I definitely enjoyed Oliver! and it sits comfortably in my 're-watchable' list but it doesn't excite me enough to go on my 'must-see' list.  I'm not quite sure why that is - the performances are well-polished but ....... there just seems to be something lacking about it.  But maybe that's just me, because there are plenty of rave reviews out there.