This production was produced by Cameron Mackintosh, with direction and choreography by Matthew Bourne. It is Mackintosh's third production of Oliver!. Bourne choreographed the 1994 London Palladium production and the 2008/2009 Theatre Royal Drury Lane production, but this was his first time directing the musical as well.

Before the performance, I knew only a few of the famous songs and knew very little about the musical as a whole. Still, there was never a dull moment. The large ensemble numbers in particular felt remarkably lively for a musical that first premiered in 1960. The audience laughed and applauded throughout the performance. It was easy to understand why the show has remained popular for so long. Some classics simply last for a reason.

The set was more striking for its rough wooden textures than for elaborate Gothic decoration. The poor neighborhood where Fagin and Sikes lived was dark and shabby, while Mr Brownlow's house was bright and clean. Color and texture alone clearly separated the two worlds Oliver moved between: poverty and crime on one side, safety and hope on the other.

The revolving stage was used particularly well. A house turned 180 degrees and immediately became a back alley. When Oliver left Mr Brownlow's house, the movement of a fence alone made it look as if he had passed through the front gate and was walking down a narrow street. Revolving staircases on both sides naturally created a second level. The London Bridge set in the final scene also rotated, showing the chase and Bill Sikes's death from the most effective angles. The stage did more than change scenes. The space itself seemed to move the story forward.

Simon Lipkin's Fagin was at the center of this production. He first appeared by rising from beneath a trapdoor. When the boys danced and sang above him, he shook his head as if the noise was ringing in his ears and rolled his eyes toward the audience. He then told the children not to dance or sing. It felt so natural that I wondered if it was an ad-lib.

In Act II, while singing about wanting to be rich, he gestured toward the stalls and said, "Like you." Then, as he sang about not wanting to be poor, he pointed up toward the upper level and added, "And like you." Another memorable moment came after Fagin narrowly escaped being bitten by a dog. The stage rotated 180 degrees, and he reappeared on the other side shouting, "Get a cat!"

The British woman sitting next to me said she had seen the same production two weeks earlier and that quite a few of the lines had been different. The songs cannot change much because they have to stay with the orchestra, but the spoken lines seemed to be varied slightly from performance to performance. I once read that Simon Lipkin could make even the Oxford English Dictionary entertaining. After seeing his Fagin, I have to agree.

In this Oliver!, Fagin was not simply a villain. The musical itself had already reshaped him into a much more comic and human character than the Fagin in Dickens's novel, and this production placed him almost at the center of the story.

He certainly exploited the children. He taught them to pick pockets and lived on what they stole. At the same time, his concern for feeding, clothing, and protecting them seemed genuine. When there was no cocoa left, he poured Oliver some gin instead. It was hardly responsible parenting, but with this Fagin it felt more like, "If there is nothing else, give the boy whatever we have."

Pickpocketing also felt less like crime driven by greed than a means of survival in their world. Children without homes, families, or stable work had few ways to survive on the streets. Like Aladdin stealing food to eat, these boys seemed to have only a handful of realistic choices.

Fagin was not entirely comfortable with making money from the children either. He showed some guilt when reflecting on his obsession with money, but that quickly returned to his fear that no one would look after him when he grew old. His desire for money was therefore linked not only to greed but also to anxiety about old age. It made him considerably more human.

In the end, he lost everything he had saved. But Dodger came back. They looked at each other for a moment and then embraced tightly. It felt like an unexpected answer to the future Fagin had feared so much. His money was gone, but one of the children he had looked after was still there. I could imagine Dodger remaining his friend even when he grew old. It was a brief embrace, but a very satisfying end to Fagin's story.

Aaron Sidwell's Bill Sikes was the complete opposite. From the moment he appeared, there was hardly a second when his body seemed relaxed. He watched every person and every space around him like a wild animal loose in the city. While the other characters moved between bright songs and comedy, Sikes seemed to remain in the same dark world throughout.

Compared with him, Nancy did not fully come alive for me in this performance. Mia Mullarkey sang extremely well. Because of the heavy reverb, ordinary dialogue with many connected sounds sometimes became blurred, while words with strong consonants such as p, t, and ch came through clearly. Her singing, however, carried the emotion very well, and I was completely absorbed whenever she sang.

Still, the relationship between Nancy and Bill felt somewhat detached. I actually liked that Nancy did not behave like a sentimental tragic heroine, but her inability to leave Bill was not strongly developed either. When Oliver was taken back, she seemed almost fully involved in Bill and Fagin's plan. Later, her decision to return Oliver to Brownlow passed by rather quietly.

The cheerful energy of numbers such as "Oom-Pah-Pah" also seemed to weaken the conflict that followed. The songs worked very well individually, but they did not quite come together into one continuous tragedy for Nancy.

I was sitting in the front row, right next to the conductor, and the seat was quite low. As a result, I could barely see Nancy's murder. I was actually relieved not to see such a brutal scene. Still, my impression of Nancy might have been different if I had seen her final moments properly.

After killing Nancy, Sikes kept shaking her body. It looked less like guilt than confusion, as if he could not quite believe what he had done. In the final chase, Oliver used the metal structure on the bridge to block Sikes and escape to the other side. The stage rotated, and the police fired at Sikes from a box in the auditorium. When I saw Sidwell smiling brightly and singing during the curtain call, he looked almost like a completely different person from the man I had watched throughout the show.

Among all these characters, Thomas Newman's Oliver was quieter but left perhaps the clearest impression. He was naturally kind and sometimes seemed completely innocent, like the child he was. At Fagin's house, he happily joined the other boys without even realizing that he was learning how to pick pockets. But he was never simply passive. He fought back when his mother was insulted, tried to keep his promises to people who trusted him, and found his own way out of danger in the final chase.

The strongest moment came near the end, when he said to Brownlow, "Sir, take me home, sir." There was a dignity in him that I had not noticed so clearly before. Even after learning that Brownlow was his grandfather, Oliver did not suddenly become sentimental or cling to him. He still called him "Sir." But now he knew where he belonged.

That short, dry line made Oliver's dignity and self-respect clearer than anything else in the musical. Adults had been deciding his fate throughout the story, but poverty, abuse, and crime had never changed who he was.

At this point, Dickens's theme came through very clearly. Poverty does not determine a person's worth, and being born into miserable circumstances does not take away one's dignity. Dickens often seems to reward such characters at the end by giving them economic security and a family. Oliver also enters a completely different life when he is reunited with Brownlow.

Still, I came away thinking that Oliver would probably have grown into a decent adult even without that good fortune. Even if he had never found a wealthy grandfather, I could imagine him doing some ordinary job, quietly doing his part and keeping his dignity. Not everyone gets a dramatic rise in social status. A good society is also built by countless ordinary people who simply live decent lives.

For me, then, the final reward in Oliver! was less Brownlow's wealth than the simple line, "Sir, take me home, sir." Oliver had already managed to remain himself before he ever found a good home.

Cast
Oliver Twist: Thomas Newman
Fagin: Simon Lipkin
Bill Sikes: Aaron Sidwell
Nancy: Mia Mullarkey
Mr Bumble: Oscar Conlon-Morrey
Widow Corney: Katy Secombe
Mr Sowerberry / Dr Grimwig: Stephen Matthews
Mrs Sowerberry / Mrs Bedwin: Jamie Birkett
Charlotte: Bethan Keens
Noah Claypole: Jehu Josephs
The Artful Dodger: Aaron MacGregor
Dand: Harry Cross
Charley Bates: Lochlan White
Bet: Jasmine Sakyiama
Mr Brownlow: Philip Franks
Old Sally: Wendy Somerville
Ensemble: Lois Craig, Bethany Huckle, Conor McFarlane, Julie Cloke, Charlie Stripp, Tom Andrew Hargreaves, Will Elliot, Victoria Hay, Sienna Widd