During the decades since its premiere, Lionel Bart's Oliver! has become one of the most beloved and familiar shows in the musical theater canon. When it first appeared, however, it was rather idiosyncratic on several counts. First, the lyrics, music, and book were all penned by Bart. Furthermore, it had originated in England, while since the 1920s the genre had been overwhelmingly dominated by American musicals. Finally, flying in the face of tradition, when the show landed on Yankee shores in 1962 (two years after the London premiere), it landed on the west coast instead of the east, playing first to audiences in Los Angeles before proceeding on to New York City the following year.

Oliver! is a rather curious combination of optimism and pathos, and its memorable and singable tunes shed a light of hope onto an otherwise bleak scene. In fact, one of the first criticisms lodged against the production was that in adapting Charles Dickens's classic to the musical stage, Bart did to the story something similar to what he did to the title—lopping off the last name from Oliver Twist and replacing it with an enthusiastic exclamation point—certainly, there is something a little odd about the pep with which, in the opening number, the undernourished orphans march onto the stage singing "Food Glorious Food." Of course, this culinary fantasy inspires the eponymous character's admirable audacity in asking for an unprecedented second bowl of gruel—the act that sets in motion Oliver's eventual and circuitous escape from a life of hopeless poverty.

The story is not impalpably cheerful, however, and Oliver's inspiring ascent is set in counterpoint to a more tragic plot line—that of Nancy. A rather worldly woman of the bar-brawl class, she meets Oliver after his initiation into a scrappy band of pickpockets, and takes a special liking to the boy. As Oliver's lot changes and his former "associates" fear incrimination, Nancy is sent to snatch Oliver home from the comfortable home where he has been taken in. She is eventually torn between her compassion for Oliver and her loyalty to her thuggish outlaw boyfriend, Bill Sikes; when she frees Oliver, Sikes murders her. Thus Oliver's continual strokes of luck and eventual happy end, are set against Nancy's heroic demise.

Perhaps because of his dual role as wordster and songster, Lionel Bart is able to string into his plot some of the most memorable tunes in musical theater. Fagin, the leader of the pickpockets, tutors his young charges in the fine art of pilfery to the sneaky strains of "You've got to pick a pocket or two"; later, he questions (but only momentarily) his line of work in "Reviewing the situation." One of Bart's cleverest creations is the melodious street-vendor canon of "Who will buy?": Oliver, finding himself miraculously invited into the home of a magnanimous stranger, wonders thankfully at his new life, while outside the cries of the knife-grinder, milkmaid, and strawberry girl provide harmonious accompaniment. Perhaps the most poignant tunes, however, are to be found in those moments when the main characters find themselves in deepest crisis. For Oliver, this comes after he his sold into indentured servitude to an undertaker; sitting among the coffins, Oliver intones the plaintive "Where is love?" Nancy's defining moment comes when she debates whether to stay faithful to Sikes or to help the boy, in "As long as he needs me." These two pivotal songs outline the tragic impasse that brings the work to its moving conclusion.

© Jeremy Grimshaw, Rovi