FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE & BROADCAST

 

November 8, 2006

Salinas, CA

 

Press contact only: Dawn Flood

publicity@westernstage.com

 

Please see release for all appropriate public information

 
 

 


 

Get a Heaping, Helping of Oliver! at The Western Stage

 

The Western Stage concludes its 2006 season with Oliver!, one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Based on Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, Lionel Bart’s Tony-award winning adaptation recounts the uplifting rags to riches story of an orphan boy trying to survive on the brutal streets of London. Featuring such show stopping numbers as “Food, Glorious Food”, “Where is Love, and “Pick a Pocket or Two”, this musical is a holiday gift for the entire family. Oliver! plays on the Mainstage December 1 – 17, Hartnell Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $30 General Admission, $20 Seniors/Juniors/Military.  Tickets may be purchased through the ticket office at (831) 375-2111 or online at westernstage.com (113 Words)

 

Salinas, CA—November 8, 2006

 

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

 

It’s an innocent enough request. But when little Oliver Twist makes his plea for another helping of gruel to the cold hearted Mr. Bumble, he quickly learns otherwise in Lionel Bart’s Tony-award winning musical Oliver!, which plays at The Western Stage December 1 - 17.

 

Featuring such rousing numbers as “Food, Glorious Food”, “Pick a Pocket or Two”, and “Where is Love”, this musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ rags to riches story about an orphan struggling to survive in the underworld of Victorian London promises to be a perfect gift for the entire family this Holiday season.

 

Like much of Charles Dickens’s work, Oliver Twist was written to cast a light on the plight of pauper children in 19th Century England. In his preface to the 1841 edition, Dickens wrote: “I wanted to show, in little Oliver, the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance, and triumphing at last.” It was a deeply personal issue for Dickens, who himself had served time in debtors prison with his family while a child. Like Oliver, he suffered the humiliation and degradation of poverty in Victorian England only to grow up to become an upstanding citizen.

 

Originally produced at the New Theatre on London’s West End in 1960, Oliver! became an instantaneous success. After a brief tour through the United States in 1962, Oliver! finally arrived on Broadway in 1963, running a total of 774 performances and winning three Tony Awards. This was a milestone for British Theatre, which had been unable to compete with Great American Musicals like Okalahoma and My Fair Lady until this breakthrough production.

 

Although Lionel Bart enjoyed considerable acclaim for revitalizing the British musical, and thus paving the way for recent transatlantic hits like Cats and Les Miserables, his future works never quite matched his early successes. (For more on Bart, read the supplemental “From Riches to Rags: the Life and Times of Lionel Bart”)

 

Oliver! is directed by Jeff McGrath, who’s previous TWS directorial credits include The Real Thing, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and Prelude to a Kiss.

 

Oliver! plays on the Mainstage, Hartnell College Performing Arts Center, December 1 – 17. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets are $30 General Admission, $20 Seniors/Juniors/Military.  Tickets can be purchased through the ticket office at 375-2111 or online at westernstage.com

 

Dan Tarker

Literary Associate