In damp, foggy miserableness at the gates of a workhouse, a young woman has given birth to a young son, but worn out by her travails passes away. A ragged woman who has presumably helped the mother at the birth takes the baby… and also a long, gleaming gold locket from round the neck of the deceased woman…and then calls to alert others of the woman’s demise.
Twelve years later, that little boy, now called Oliver Twist, still resides at the workhouse with dozens of other young urchins who are fed on gruel and are so hungry that even the little they receive is serenaded to as “Food, glorious food.”
The orphans sing “Food, Glorious Food”
Our young hero has the temerity to request a second serving of the gruel. Chided for his insolence, summarily dismissed from the workhouse, Oliver and his meager belongings are taken into town by Mr. Bumble, where he is sold into apprenticeship to an undertaker.
The conditions there are little better and Oliver soon runs away and heads to London in search of a better life. But London has dangers of its own…
Oliver (Eli Emming) meets the Artful Dodger (Axel Manica). Oliver. Photography by RDG Studios
Director Shannan Steele takes us, and Oliver, on a tense and emotional journey from the dimness of London’s poverty-stricken underbelly to the middle-class world of brightness and hope.
The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse’s production is underpinned by a fine performance by Kent Sugg as the villainous but light-hearted Fagin who recruits young orphans into his gang of pickpockets and thieves (“You’ve got to pick a pocket or two”), and David Wygant who is chilling as the laconic and brutal Bill Sikes who strikes terror into everyone with whom he comes in contact (“My name”).
Kent Sugg as Fagin, the mastermind of a band of young thieves and pickpockets. Photography by RDG Studios
Charlotte Campbell makes her Candlelight debut as the tragic Nancy, Sike’s misguided girlfriend (“As Long as He Needs Me”) who develops a fondness for Oliver and attempts to help him as much as she can.
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The young members of the cast – the orphans in the workhouse and the young urchins in Fagin’s gang – are a lot of fund, led by Eli Emming who demonstrates a fine voice as the shy but feisty Oliver.
Eli Emming as Oliver. Photography by RDG Studios
Food, Glorious Food
The Candlelight continues its tradition of providing entrees themed to the show.
For Oliver!, there’s a choice of steak pie (beef and mushrooms in gravy topped with a fluffy pastry crust, served with mashed potatoes and green beans), blackened bleu chicken (blackened Cajun chicken topped with gorgonzola compound butter – not quite British food of the period!), fish ‘n’ chips, and a stuffed portobello mushroom.
Upgraded entrees included Candlelight signature grilled prime rib, stuffed cornish hen, or Bavarian burger.
Steak pie and mashed potatoes (green beans left off by request). Garden salad and chocolate covered cheese cake
The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse is located just off exit 254 on I-25, just an hour away from Denver coming north or Cheyenne, WY going south. There’s plenty of parking.
Oliver! will run until May 26, 2019. The final production of the Candlelight’s 11th season begins June 6, when Disney’s Tarzan swings into the theatre!
