This spring's musical production of Oliver! played to a packed house both Friday and Saturday; (Thursday's dress rehearsal attracted almost one hundred!). It's one more triumph for Proctor theater, Terry Stoecker and Michael Littman. The cast is huge, with nineteen local tikes pouring their hearts and souls into roles as the "workhouse kids," here singing "Food, Glorious Food."
A 1968 adaptation of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, the story chronicles an orphan who runs away to the streets of London, where he is taken in by a gang of pickpockets, led by the manipulative Fagin.
Wrongly accused of a crime (unwittingly against his wealthy biological grandfather!) Oliver is sought by the violent and malevolent Bill Sykes. Meanwhile, there's a series of dynamite songs belted out with passion by a convincing, cockney troupe.
Crowd response to this musical was electric, and the exciting fact is that a whole crop of very young actors has emerged, who should keep Proctor audiences entertained for several years.
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