It was 1968, and every pre-teen girl sat glued to her movie theater seat dreamy-eyed for Mark Lester, the ethereal blonde boy who stole everyone’s hearts as Oliver.
Lester was the star of the movie musical “Oliver!” based on the Charles Dickens’ classic “Oliver Twist,” a story of a boy who runs away from an orphanage and falls in with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor named Fagin. The movie was a huge success, and the musical play emerged to take British and American stages by storm.
Flash forward to 2010, when “Oliver! The Musical” gets ready to open at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, with a young girl playing the title role.
Director Kira Keeney-Vogt said that Chloe Hood, 12, has tackled the difficult role of Oliver Twist with the maturity of someone well beyond her years.
“Poor Chloe. She gets battered around in this show and just pulls it altogether. She does such a great job,” Keeney-Vogt said.
For her part, the homeschooled sixth-grader from Langley has sunk her teeth into the meatiest role of her young acting career.
“‘Oliver!’ really made me realize just how much things have changed,” the young actor said.
And, although “Where Is Love?” is her biggest singing challenge in the show, the seasoned singer said she sang all through her years at the Waldorf School, and that she can’t remember a time when she didn’t sing.
“Also, it’s been great working with such a variety of actors, both adults and kids,” Chloe said.
Even in this darkest of dramas, Chloe still keeps good humor.
“It is very challenging for me to remain in character when others who may have a comical role are trying to be funny. Certain scenes are especially hard,” she said.
But the intensity of what happens to Oliver is what makes this story interesting to the director.
Keeney-Vogt said she was after getting a little something more than what the musical adaptation offered. She wanted to get at some of the important darker themes of Dickens’ novel that absolutely required not only technical shenanigans, but a cast who understands the full life of these characters.
“I wanted certain moments to come across clearly, even without dialogue,” Keeney-Vogt said.
“And a lot of it is so clear because of this unbelievable cast. Every single moment, we see the deep humanity and emotion of Dickens, which is far deeper than what you see when you read the script.”
In fact, there are moments in this production that refer directly to the novel “Oliver Twist,” which Keeney-Vogt added using light, tableau and movement in order to reintroduce symbolic themes that are important to her vision of what Dickens was writing about. Such moments include a focus on the inhumane worklife suffered by the orphans, the egregious evil that is inherent in certain characters, a particularly poignant moment when Nancy (as played by Amy Walker) surrenders herself to do the right thing, and the fact that Oliver is continuously a victim of circumstance and bad luck.
With a creative team, cast, crew and orchestra of more than 70, pulling off “Oliver!” is no easy feat, but Keeney-Vogt said the entire team rose to the challenge. She is particularly thankful to have the expertise of musical director Robert Prosch.
“The music is absolutely astounding, and I’m so lucky to have Robert Prosch. He is a strict musician and a perfectionist where he needs to be,” she said. “He is able to see that the music functions the way it should in order to drive the story along.”
Ultimately, although the director struggled a bit with the abundant amount of death in the play, she said the piece satisfies in its redemptive quality.
“A lot of these characters get what they deserve. But, although it is tragic in some ways, the ideas of family and finding where you belong in life are the themes that carry the show in the end.”
For a full list of cast and creative team members, visit the website; click here.
“Oliver! The Musical” plays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays from Dec. 3 through Dec. 18.
In conjunction with the show, Whidbey Island Center for the Arts includes other entertainment during this holiday season as part of its “Dickens Project.”
On Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. enjoy “Noel! The Magic of Christmas in Concert,” with the Noel ensemble presenting an evening of Yuletide poetry and music, and at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, “Figgy Pudding,” when the WICA Chamber Singers perform a repertoire of Christmas classics.
Tickets for all events range from $12 to $16, with discounts available for seniors, military, youths and groups, and are available with a click here.
Also available is “A-DICKENS-OF-A-DEAL” — see “Oliver! The Musical,” “Noel,” and “Figgy Pudding” for $36.
Other special events include an opening night reception after the show on Friday, Dec. 3; “Oliver! The Musical” Brown Bag Prologue and Performance at noon on Sunday, Dec. 5; and Talk Back Sunday with a post-show discussion after the 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12 show.
