Lionel Bart News

Cameron Mackintosh will present Rowan Atkinson as 'Fagin' in Lionel Bart's musical masterpiece 'OLIVER!' at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with performances commencing from 12 December 2008 and a press night on 14 January 2009.

Berkshire Theatre Festival Artistic Director Kate Maguire is pleased to announce the company's 2008 80th anniversary season, which will extend from May 22 through December 30 and be the longest-running season in the company's history.

Gila Sand's sexy retelling of the Dickens' classic is running at the Midtown International Theatre Festival.

The most difficult aspect of dramatizing a well-known and well-loved work of literature is finding the correct balance between maintaining the integrity of the original work and adding elements to justify the adaptation. The recent Broadway revival of A Chorus Line was criticized for being a carbon copy of the original production, while the short-lived, musicalized version of The Wedding Singer film was criticized for changing key plot points. How, then, can an adaptation to the stage do justice to the original work as well as bring the material to life in a new and innovative way? Neil Bartlett seems to know the secret. In his adaptation of 'Oliver Twist,' the classic novel by Charles Dickens, Bartlett captures the dark, dank world of the young orphan in a way that Lionel Bart's musical Oliver! fails to do. There are no upbeat songs about 'Oom-Pah-Pah!' or considering yourself part of the family; Bartlett's Oliver Twist is no musical comedy.

With an impressive cast of 28 children, it is the younger talent that proves to be the heartbeat of this Lionel Bart adaptation of Charles Dicken's novel...

Milla Ilieva, the 2006 Bistro Award-winner and 2004 and 2006 Nightlife Award finalist will return with her critically-acclaimed show 'So Many Nights, So Many Men' to Danny's Skylight Room Cabaret, 346 West 46th Street for another back-by-popular demand one-night stand

A listing of shows currently running or scheduled to open in the next week.

Broadway veterans Ken Page, Jenny Powers, Bruce Adler and Robert Westenberg will star in the upcoming St. Louis Muny staging of the Charles Dickens-based musical Oliver!, which will be presented from July 31st through August 6th

Poor staging sabotages good performances in Community theatre production of popular musical OLIVER! * * (out of 5)

Family favourite to be staged by Toronto's Yorkminstrels for one week only!

Cabaret star Milla Ilieva will perform her show So Many Nights, So Many Men at Danny's Skylight Room on Valentine's Day

Cabaret performer Milla Ilieva will present her show So Many Nights, So Many Men at the Encore from October 28th through November 12th

While many may buy into this cutesy, community quality production, Cameron Mackintosh may need to go back to the drawing board or at least back to the Dickens novel to retrieve and revive this classic treasure.