Colm!

Sep. 1st, 2006 03:47 pm
desoto_hia873: (Colm Feore - desoto_hia873)
[personal profile] desoto_hia873
My father saw Colm Feore playing Fagin in Oliver! at the Stratford Festival a few weeks ago. Upon reflection, I decided that this was something I just had to see: one of my favourite actors in one of my favourite musicals. So, I just bought tickets for the evening performance on Friday, September 15. :-) I'm in Row E, which is plenty close enough to enjoy the Colmy goodness.

ETA: I made a Colm Feore icon. :-)

Date: 2006-09-01 09:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
This is the moment also when we meet the pivotal figure of Nancy, in the person of Blyth Wilson, who brings to her character the conflicting combination of tenderness for Oliver and hard bitten grit of life in the world of thieves and introduces us to her tough boy friend, Bill Sykes.

Her hard side, too, is surmounted by good spirits as she displays her considerable singing talent and somewhat brash voice with Nancy's famous tavern performance of "Oom Pah Pah" for the gang at the local pub. Sykes, of course, is the one irretrievably evil figure in the show against whose dark image, the basic goodness and happy ending gleam happily.

At this point, the suspense builds seriously when Oliver is taken by police and turned over to a respectable family. It is another moment of London local color as Oliver, propped up in a comfortable bed, listens through the window to the cries of the morning street vendors in an interlude recreating a charming tradition that is long lost from the life of the city. It is beautifully costumed, choreographed and musically accompanied — a shining gem of an interlude and a welcome pause in the progress of the show.

The suspense that follows is occasioned by Oliver's recapture by Fagin and Sykes, and his attempted rescue by Nancy, which brings Sykes' wrath down on her. The bobbies at last break up the gang. Fagin does not escape with his miser's hoard for his old age, and Sykes dies ignominiously as he tries to get away.

With all problems resolved and Oliver safe in the arms of his grandfather, the performance comes to an extended close with a curtain call reprise of many of the most loved musical numbers. It makes a fitting and upbeat conclusion to an absolutely first rate revival of one of England's most popular musicals.

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