Oliver!?Theater Costume Rentals

Oliver! was the first musical adaptation of a famous Charles Dickens work to become a stage hit. (Besides the fame of Oliver Twist, another reason for the success of the musical was the revolving stage set, designed by Sean Kenny.) There had been two previous Dickens musicals in the 1950s, both of them television adaptations of A Christmas Carol.

The show launched the careers of several child actors, including Davy Jones, later of The Monkees; Phil Collins, later of Genesis; Alan Paul, later of The Manhattan Transfer; and Tony Robinson, who later played the role of Baldrick in the television series Blackadder. The singer Steve Marriott (Small Faces, Humble Pie) also featured in early line-ups, eventually graduating to the role of Artful Dodger in the West End production.

The plot of Dickens? original novel is considerably simplified for the purposes of the musical, with Fagin being represented more as a comic character than as a villain, and large portions of the latter part of the story being completely left out. (It may well be that Bart based his musical on David Lean?s film, rather than Dickens? book). Although Dickens? novel has been called antisemitic in its portrayal of the Jew Fagin as evil, the production by Bart (himself a Jew) was more sympathetic and featured many Jewish actors in leading roles: Ron Moody (Ronald Moodnik), Georgia Brown (Lilian Klot), and Martin Horsey.