Review of Oliver! (1968) by Nat G — 17 Sep 2010

I'd heard so much about this musical being a touching and lovable drama of a poor orphan boy, so imagine my surprise when I found it was actually one of the most obnoxious set of performances canned in one show.

To start, the Oliver character is never developed. He's just unlucky and basically an alright kid. He's moral enough not to wish bad on someone, but not too moral as to understand that Stealing Is Wrong.

Hardly lovable innocence. Next, one is early treated to the casting kids who sing in high, waifish, whiny voices, which to me was grating. Another annoyance is the endless, elaborate stream of dance numbers.

This is where the production really shows its age. The dances are all tame, outdated, irrelevant to the story, unbelievable, rely on roomfuls of people twirling in large costumes, and often look like something out of a dated rat pack flic.

Another sign of age - the show is interminably long for the amount of storyline that is developed. It just seems to drag on and on. Yet another sad feature of this film is its hamminess - almost every major character chews the scenery.

It seems like a curse of musicals of its era. If you can get by all of that, you may enjoy some of the songs, several of which you've probably heard before from somewhere. In case you were unaware, there is one scene with some brutality toward the end of the show - it's not graphic, it's just incredibly dramatic.

You don't have to see blood - or even the victim - to be a little shocked by someone beating a poor, motherly waittress to death. One final, positive note: there is a small degree of humor, and a large degree of good costuming.