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From the sublime to the ridiculous - Maggers - 04-01-2007
Last night my friends and I went to see “Oliver Twist” off-Broadway, thinking, because it was performed at the John Jay College for Criminal Justice, that it would be a school production. We figured that my friend’s kids would enjoy it.
Well, it turned out to an exceptional version of “Oliver Twist,” adapted and directed by Neill Bartlett who created this sensational show in London and brought it to New York. It is most assuredly Broadway quality.
I’ve never seen “Oliver Twist” done like this. The language is pure Dickens; Bartlett used only Dickens’ own words. The show looked as it might have were it shown in Victorian England. The staging, set design and lighting hark back to an earlier time yet are on the cutting edge of inventive theater.
And the acting! Ned Eisenberg played Fagin, and he was magnificent. I gave him a standing ovation. You all know Ned Eisenberg; he’s a solid character actor who has appeared in lots and lots of movies and television shows, like “Million Dollar Baby,” dozens of episodes of “Law and Order,” and was the photographer who took the famous picture in “Flags of Our Fathers.” I’ve seen him a million times and recognized him, though I did not know his name. The other actors, all part of the American Repertory Theater, were amazing.
Thought not a musical, the play involves music and a cappella singing by the ensemble based on the sort of songs sung in Victorian England. It the antithesis of the movie musical, "Oliver!" They used vintage and unusual instruments, and they also acted as their own stage hands, changing scenery unobtrusively in a marvelously seamless fashion.
The show was riveting, touching, thrilling. It was the freshest rendition of “Oliver Twist” that I’ve ever seen. It made Dickens seem brand new. Should this show ever make it to your town, you’ve got to see it.
That was last night.
Tonight I walked out on “The Number 14.” I NEVER walk out on a show, but this was excruciating. It was at the New Vic Theater, one of the few theaters in NYC that caters to children, a fact that my friend and I forgot, to our detriment. The evening got off to a bad start when 3 senior ladies staggered and limped towards seats around us, talking loudly of abdominal gas and nasal congestion. Emitting a resounding belch, one of the ladies proclaimed her relief, “the gas is gone now; thank God I could burp like that.” Luckily, the hapless trio moved to seats further up front.
And then the play began. As with “Oliver Twist,” we didn’t read much about the play beforehand. I knew it took place on a bus and the actors portrayed about 40 different characters. I envisioned an edgy show where NY bus riders where shown in their true light. When the lights went down and the actors popped up in the bus windows wearing supposedly funny but really scary masks that made them look like the Killer Klowns from Outer Space, I knew we were in trouble. They proceeded to engage in the most awful, unfunny, lame scenarios that were painful to watch. But, and it’s a big but, the audience was laughing, or at least the kids were, and many adults, too. I spent more time looking around the audience because what was happening onstage was unwatchable. I came away fearing for the future of America if so many people in that audience could enjoy that show. They had to have soup for brains.
We left after 15 insufferable minutes. An usher in the lobby asked, “You didn’t like the show?” I said no, it was unbearable. He looked as if he understood but couldn’t say so.
So, as I’ve said many times, Off-Broadway is a crap shoot. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s not, and you never know what you’re gonna get.
From the sublime to the ridiculous - Lisa - 04-01-2007
Hey Maggers, the Oliver Twist show sounds cool. I love Dickens and that's one of my favorites.