Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Lionel Bart’s iconic musical, Oliver!, which he has fully reconceived with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne, will open in London at the end of the year.
Oliver! will begin performances at Gielgud Theatre on Saturday 14 December 2024.
The cast includes Simon Lipkin (Guys and Dolls, Avenue Q) as Fagin, Shanay Holmes (Miss Saigon, The Bodyguard) as Nancy, Aaron Sidwell (Henry VI, Wicked) as Bill Sikes, Billy Jenkins (Les Misérables, BBC’s Dodger) as the Artful Dodger and Philip Franks (The Rocky Horror Show, Witness for the Prosecution) as Mr Brownlow.
With a sensational score, including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more, the Olivier, Tony and Oscar-winning masterpiece vividly brings to life Dickens’ ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more.
__Access performances__
Audio described: Sat 26 April 2025, 2:30pm
The biggest flaw, though, is one that’s haunted the show for decades: Olivier himself is just pretty bland. I’m not going to single out the child actor who was on when I saw it, because I think the problem lies firstly with Bart and secondly with the direction. But our hero is a wide eyed, improbably well-spoken young man who travels through life with such monumental innocence that it’s never even clear here that he’s aware Fagin et al are criminals. It’s a demanding role to give a tween, but the amount resting on his small shoulders has always been a weakness of the show. And clearly it’s not something Mackintosh is desperately bothered about fixing. And why would he? Now booking until next March, the West End’s most successful producer has a hit on his hands with Oliver! Again.
And Fagin himself? Actors have fumbled for decades with the Jewish tics of the role — get rid or embrace? — but Simon Lipkin’s wonderfully reimagined portrayal goes full kosher and makes something really remarkable (and very funny) out of the old vagabond. Part lost soul, part sad clown, this Fagin counts his jewels in desperation, not miserly greed (“who’s going to look after me in my old age?” speaks as much today as it ever did) and with his show-stopping Reviewing the Situation, Lipkin captures both the plight of a traumatised immigrant — and of anyone trying to lead a good life in a dark and devious world.
| 1960 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
| 1963 | Broadway |
Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1965 | Broadway |
Return Engagement [Broadway] Broadway |
| 1976 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
| 1979 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
| 1984 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 1994 | Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
Paper Mill Production Milburn, NJ (Regional) |
| 1994 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 2009 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 2011 | UK Tour |
UK Tour UK Tour |
| 2018 | East Haddam, CT (Regional) |
Goodspeed Musicals Revival East Haddam, CT (Regional) |
| 2023 | Off-Broadway |
New York City Center Encores! Production Off-Broadway |
| West End |
West End |
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| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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