It has been a long time since saw the original movie or even read the original Dickens’ tale but I did not expect Oliver! The Musical to be as dark or as adult as what I saw tonight. There were some extremely mature themes in tonight’s performance which makes me question how any parent could possibly think of bringing their child to see it. There were quite a few sex jokes and don’t get me started on the violence or at least suggested spousal violence.

Speaking of bringing children who are too young to the olitre there was a family of four in front of us including one particularly chatty girl who spoke through the WHOLE musical and her parents did nothing at all to try and keep her quiet. In addition the family were constantly rustling food wrappers and just being generally disruptive. This proved nearly too much for the people next to us and the people next to them as halfway through the first act a fight nearly broke out. Needless to say the people sitting next to the family left to sit somewhere else after the intermission. It didn’t shame the noisy family though because they carried on being disruptive.

The darkness was unanticipated especially after an entertaining upbeat opening number by the kids in the orphanage. The kids were pretty amazing with their timing – how they kept that and their spots in the energetic frantic chaotic piece is a total mystery – but somehow they did!

Critics have been nearly unanimous in their praise for the production but I found myself not liking it at all and I can’t quite work out why. Other than a more than justified dislike of the Bill Sykes character there wasn’t anything I could point to which has caused me to feel dissatisfied. The set was great, most of the cast were pretty good especially the little boy who played the Artful Dodger (great comic timing and much better in his role than Oliver) and, last but not least, the little puppy dog! He/she was just gorgeous! I think it could have been all the depressing and dark themes – it just didn’t sit well with me. James liked it though!