NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Oliver! is a stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
Oliver! is taking the stage at the Family Community Theatre starting Thursday.
"The story is set in about 1838 in London," said Craig Williams with Family Community Theatre. "A young boy who has grown up in the workhouse begins an adventure, where he is taken away from the workhouse, sold to an undertaker. That doesn't work out. He runs away from there, ends up in London and there he meets a young man by the name of the Artful Dodger, who is a pickpocket. The Artful Dodger takes him to meet his boss, Fagin. He's a fencer and a criminal himself. What he does is introduce Oliver to the life of crime. Oliver gets caught, not of his doing. He is caught with a group of pickpockets by a man by the name of Brownlow. Brownlow then finds out that he really didn't pick his pocket. It was somebody else. He takes Oliver in. All of this is going on with the undercurrent of the criminal element in London at that time. One of the worst criminals that is portrayed in the show is Bill Sikes. He is just evil personified. Another part of the gang is,.who grew up with Fagin, or grew up in his tutelage, is Nancy. Nancy takes a liking to Oliver and tries to protect him and get him out of the clutches of Fagin, so that he will not grow up in that same kind of environment. Eventually, that's what happens."
Performances are at Memorial Hall February 15-18. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the curtain is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon's matinee is at 3 p.m.
Tickets are available at Absolutely Home, 15 East 14th, Bookends Bookstore, 123 North Main, online at www.familycommunitytheatre.org or by contacting a member of the cast.
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