Theatre Group visit to “Oliver “ at the Gielgud Theatre

Our West End theatre trip in March was to the new production of Oliver which had transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre where it had been the summer musical of 2024. We didn’t make it to Chichester but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the show at the Gielgud Theatre. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh with directing and choreography by Matthew Bourne it's not surprising it has had good reviews.

We all felt like singing along as we seemed to have remembered all the songs from past performances but this new adaption was well done with some excellent performances. Notably Fagin played by Simon Lipkin and Nancy played by Shanay Holmes. The part of Oliver is shared by four boys but the lad who performed for us was engaging and had a very nice singing voice. The Artful Dodger played by Billy Jenkins was also very well portrayed. It was a glorious performance of song and dance starting with “food glorious food “ by the children in the orphanage and at the finale a medley including again “Consider yourself at home” by the cast.

We all left the theatre humming and singing away to those familiar tunes after a very enjoyable afternoon.

Contributed by Mary Garside