Following a fantastic response after opening at the Gielgud Theatre, Oliver! has already extended its booking period until March 2026 with discounts for groups of ten or more at select performances. How did this latest incarnation make it back to the big time?
Cameron Mackintosh’s spectacular new production of Lionel Bart’s iconic musical, Oliver!, which has been fully reconceived with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, is now playing at the Gielgud Theatre, London following rave five-star reviews and a sold-out season at Chichester Festival Theatre.
The cast includes Simon Lipkin (Guys and Dolls, Avenue Q) as Fagin, Shanay Holmes (Miss Saigon, The Bodyguard) as Nancy, Aaron Sidwell (Henry VI, Wicked) as Bill Sikes, Billy Jenkins (Les Misérables, BBC’s Dodger) as the Artful Dodger and Philip Franks (The Rocky Horror Show, Witness for the Prosecution) as Mr Brownlow.
A special connection: Oliver! and Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh was first introduced to Oliver! as a 13-year-old schoolboy shortly after it opened in June 1960. He sat mesmerised in the gallery taking in the brilliance of Lionel Bart’s glorious songs and brilliant adaptation of Dickens’ classic story. The show influenced his life evermore and changed the British musical for ever.
Having worked on the first British national tour of the show in 1965, both as performer and assistant stage manager, he obtained the rights to Oliver! some years later and, having revived the show in 1978, in 1994 he decided to reinvent a spectacular new production of Oliver! for the London Palladium stage where it was an enormous success, first starring Jonathan Pryce, directed by the very young up-and-coming director Sam Mendes and choreographer Matthew Bourne.
This new production ran for several years and was revived even more spectacularly at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2009, starring Rowan Atkinson, leading a huge company of over 80 on that great stage.
Bringing a refreshed classic back to the West End
Plans to bring back Oliver! to the West End a decade later were frustrated by the Covid shutdown but once theatres reopened again, Matthew Bourne and Cameron asked Matthew’s long time design collaborator Lez Brotherston to join them to create a contemporary new approach inspired by Sean Kenny’s original design.
The unique shape of the Chichester auditorium was a terrific catalyst for creating an exciting new Oliver! and proved a triumphant success. But Oliver! was written to be performed in a traditional proscenium theatre, so a second reinvention was always planned, reconfiguring the set and adding new flying elements for a traditional stage to realise the full potential of Lez Brotherston’s brilliant, ingenious design.
The intimate nature of the historic Gielgud Theatre naturally enhances the atmospheric claustrophobia of Dickensian London.
Cameron says: “We have all had an exhilarating time reinventing the show and ensuring that our fabulous Company ‘consider themselves well in’, bringing a thrilling modern edge to Lionel’s joyful and timeless masterpiece.”
With a sensational score, including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more, this Tony and Oscar-winning masterpiece vividly brings to life Dickens’ ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more.
For tickets and more information, go to www.oliverthemusical.com.
