Citadel's ambitious 'Oliver!' falls short
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Citadel Theatre's revival of “Oliver!” is the tenaciousness of its ensemble. Their determination was evident in the way they soldiered on opening night despite a blaring fire alarm — tripped by a smoke machine used for a fog effect — that all but drowned out the musical's final moments.
The earsplitting racket sent several audience members scurrying for the exits. But the actors — nearly half of them children and all of them troupers — continued undaunted.
As the adage says it must, the show went on (without injury or property damage) and concluded about the time the Lake Forest Fire Department arrived. That it did testifies to how committed the cast and crew are to director Pat Murphy's ambitious production of composer/lyricist Lionel Bart's 1960 musical. Based on Charles Dickens' scathing 1837 indictment of England's dehumanizing treatment of the poor, “Oliver!” is a tale of transformation, redemption and the triumph of good over evil.
But it's not exactly family-friendly. Not with its cruel and corrupt father figures, absent or victimized mothers and the unrelenting want, criminality and brutality underscoring it. Balancing the show's darker elements makes this tuner a challenge. Unfortunately, it's a challenge Citadel has not yet mastered.
We first encounter the orphaned Oliver (Roy Gantz, an appealing young performer with a pleasant voice who shares the role with Zachary Fewkes) when the starving boy asks for another helping of gruel from the corrupt Mr. Bumble (Steve Malone) and the pitiless Widow Corney (Mary Nigohosian, alternating with Nancy Greco) who run the wretched children's workhouse where he lives.
Expelled and sold to an undertaker couple, he runs away and is befriended by Artful Dodger (Logan Aldrich, sharing the role with Asher Alcantara), a savvy street kid who introduces Oliver to Fagin (a nicely scheming Henry Michael Odum). An aging thief and ersatz father to a band of juvenile pickpockets, each one cuter than the next, Fagin instructs Oliver in the art of lifting wallets. He also introduces the boy to London's underworld including the charming pickpocket Nancy (good work from Erin Renee Baumrucker), a punching bag for her brutish lover Bill Sykes (Michael Ermel).
The action unfolds on designer David Geinosky's good-looking, Dickensian set, which appears to have been inspired by a storybook. The playing space is small, requiring Murphy to send his actors into the audience during scene changes. As a result the staging often feels claustrophobic, although the farcical scenes involving pint-size criminals picking the pockets of unsuspecting aristocrats are rather cleverly conceived by Murphy.
There's no orchestra. The actors sing to a recorded track. But the melancholy “Who Will Buy?” remains as lovely as ever. And that rousing salute to the underclass “Oom-Pah-Pah” will put a smile on your face, as will “Reviewing the Situation,” in which Odum's Fagin considers the benefits of reforming his criminal ways.
But Murphy and his actors need to go deeper. Embracing easy sentiment, Citadel's production fails to examine the dark elements that make this show intriguing.
“Oliver!”
★ ★
<b>Location:</b> Lake Forest High School west campus, 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, (847) 735-8554 or <a href="http://citadeltheatre.org">citadeltheatre.org</a>
<b>Showtimes:</b> 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 20. Also 3 p.m. Dec. 12 and 19. No show Nov. 26.
<b>Running time:</b> About 2 hours, 30 minutes, including intermission
<b>Parking:</b> Free lot adjacent to theater
<b>Tickets:</b> $35-$37.50
<b>Rating:</b> For teens and older, scenes depict domestic violence