Review: OLIVER! at Bank Of America Performing Arts Center

As the earliest Broadway musical ever to feature children playing major roles, Oliver! usually bristles with youthful excitement. But despite being marketed as a family-oriented musical, Oliver! is really inappropriate for younger audiences, and it was uncomfortable listening to parents trying to explain to their small children at intermission why that nice girl Nancy loves the bully Sikes and how being successful in picking people's pockets is a positive career move. The answer lies in Lionel Bart's sunny score. With catchy singalongs like "Consider Yourself," "I'd Do Anything," and "Be Back Soon," it's easy to reinforce this misinterpretation of what is really a very dark show about destitution, poverty, crime, and murder.

5-Star Theatricals' recent production, which ran from October 13-22 at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks, included excellent turns from not only its youthful stars - Kayden Alexander Koshelev (in the title role) and Alkaio Thiele (The Artful Dodger) - but also from the large children's ensemble, who were put through their paces by choreographer Christopher M. Albrecht in the show's many exuberant production numbers. The red-headed Koshelev displayed a pitch-perfect soprano in his touching renditions of songs such as "Where is Love?" and especially "Who Will Buy?" while Thiele romped effectively in the show's signature song, "Consider Yourself."

Unfortunately, Oliver! is only as good as its central character, the lovable, rascally Fagin, and in this department, 5-Star's casting fell far short of the mark. Mark Capri is an actor with an impeccable resumé and superb acting chops, however, in this show he showed little understanding of the history of Charles Dickens' immortal character. It is no secret that Fagin has been portrayed as Jewish in his miserly quest for money (to the point of being a negative stereotype). This fact was emphasized by composer Lionel Bart through the Hebraically-influenced melodies of Fagin's two solos: "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Reviewing the Situation" (the latter even features an unmistakably Jewish violin obbligato, beautifully played by concertmaster Sharon Cooper).

Capri's performance, however, took all of the ethnicity out of Fagin's character, making him just another homeless guy with a beard. In addition, Capri was consistently out of sync with the orchestra, something that is decidedly out of character for the usually meticulous music direction of 5-Star productions. Add to this Capri's mushy mouth enunciation, which was hard to detect even from the lower seats of the orchestra level, and the result was an underwhelming performance that brought down the entire production.

An equally subpar performance by Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper as the brutish Bill Sikes didn't help matters any. The show's costume designer, credited to The Theatre Company, a costume rental agency, showed zero understanding of Sikes' character. With a sleek black overcoat, ascot, neatly trimmed beard, and shiny top hat, Mongiardo-Cooper looked more like Dr. Jekyll than the shabby, menacing thug of Dickens' novel. Even the crooked walking stick he carried looked too upper crust, as opposed to the beat-up, short-handled baton Sikes uses to terrorize his enemies. This is the fault of director Kari Hayter, who should have realized the costume supplied for Sikes was totally inappropriate. Instead of prowling the stage malevolently, Mongiardo-Cooper wandered about the stage aimlessly, as if he were an aristocrat in the wrong part of town, looking for the entrance to the Underground, despite the ominous claps of thunder coming from the sound system.

Fortunately for this production, Monika Peña gave a spectacular performance as Nancy, the prostitute with a heart of gold who defies Sikes by seeking to protect little Oliver, with tragic results. Peña's robust singing of "It's a Fine Life," "Oom-Pah-Pah," and especially the musical's show-stopping ballad, "As Long As He Needs Me," brought the audience to its feet, something that Capri and Mongairdo-Cooper couldn't muster.

Andrew Metzger brought his usual brand of comedic tricks to the role of Mr. Bumble, the child-hating beadle of the workhouse, who Lionel Bart made more lovable and clownish in the musical. Metzger's humorous squabbling with Janna Cardia as the Widow Corney was an additional highlight of the show; in Bart's hands, the pair becomes a 19th-century version of The Honeymooners, something that diverges from the detestable opportunists Dickens made them out to be.

There were a number of questionable staging decisions, such as having stagehands change sets DURING the entire last stanza of "Reviewing the Situation," effectively ruining the number. As for the visual look of the show, 5-Star should reconsider using cost-cutting companies like The Theatre Company (costumes) and Escape Theatre (scenic design) and get someone with more imagination for atmospheric shows like Oliver! In addition to The Theatre Company's inappropriate costuming for Fagin and Bill Sikes, Escape Theatre's utilitarian bridge-with-a-basement set conveyed little of Dickens' squalid 19th-century London.

As such, although there were some outstanding performances in this production, 5-Star Theatricals can do much better.

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