Stage Review - Oliver! (Reboot Theatre)

Stage Review - Oliver!
Presented By: Reboot Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: March 21 - April 05, 2025
Date Reviewed: Thursday, March 28, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

When Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist in the 1830s, I’m sure he never could have imagined anything even remotely like its 1960 musical theatre incarnation, Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, even less so the version of the latter that is running on stage at the Theatre Off Jackson, directed by Scot Charles Anderson and produced by Reboot Theatre. Oliver Twist is over 600 pages of social interrogation and satire, most harshly presenting the lives of criminals and reprobates of his time, tackling issues like child labor, domestic violence, homelessness, and what we would now refer to as grooming, in the context of recruiting children into a criminal lifestyle. There’s a lot there, and it’s heavy stuff. Bart’s highly popular and successful musical, it won the Tony Award for Best Original Score and its film adaptation the Academy Award for Best Picture, is lighter on plot and more committed to entertainment value through its use of memorable songs, less but more relatable characters, and a reliance on humor to take the edge off some of the story’s more darker subjects. It does this while still maintaining the general plot of the book, it just leaves out a lot of the detail, in fact the musical may likely make a few audience members want to go pick up the book and fill in some of the blanks, but in no way is the book a prerequisite to the musical. Meanwhile, the Reboot production, which runs on stage at the Theatre Off Jackson through April 5, is all about taking the dirty, grimy, and poverty stricken London of Dickens’ novel and combining it with the 1970s heyday of punk rock, creating a musical that meets the organization’s vision of presenting a new interpretation of an established work through nontraditional casting and design, and bringing it underground, literally and most figuratively.

This production, under Scot’s auspicious direction, is a raucous and rollicking good time. It’s raw, both in its design and delivery, but it’s also complex and purposeful at the same time. Let’s call it organized chaos. Jeff Church’s scenic design, in concert with Robin Macartney’s properties design, really does feel like the basement of an old, vacated industrial space that this group of vagabonds has stumbled across and decided to squat in. The floor of the stage at the Theatre Off Jackson is painted like a distressed Union Jack, behind which Sam Peters’ live band sits. And further behind the band is a pathway, a sort of scaffold that fits within the band’s makeshift proscenium that wraps around from one side of the stage to the other and acts as an exit point for the actors when necessary. The set otherwise is mostly minimalist, just benches and other pieces that are brought on and off the stage as a particular scene requires, but in all honesty minimalist here is a good thing. The cast is decent in size, 13 for the smallish Theatre Off Jackson space, so the less the actors have to navigate around on stage the better. All the more impressive, though, is how the space is used by the group. I’ve seen larger stages feel more crowded by smaller casts, and in what is a testament partially to Scot’s blocking, but especially to choreographer Annalisa Brinchmann’s work as well as the violence/intimacy choreographer Chelsey Sheppard, it’s impressive what this group is able to do in this particular space. Annalisa layers the choreography to make the most of the space, and in some of the more active of the numbers, what seems like a mosh pit and chaotic is clearly designed that way, so while there’s a lot going on, it’s never uncontrolled. This is all similar to the chase scenes, of which there are quite a few. In the story, it seems like Oliver is always running away from someone and being chased down, and through the creative use of the main stage, the band platform, the aforementioned scaffolding, the aisles of the theatre, and some intricately designed movement, long distance chases are presented, yet contained within the confines of the space. And because of the sheer amount of this movement, and the number of actors on stage, these scenes must have required as much rehearsing in their choreography as any of the musical numbers, and they’re carried out to near perfection.

This raw theming carries over into all of the design elements, there’s really a nice synergy between them all. Carolina Johnson’s lighting provides a dark and haunting space, spotlighting the right things and people at the right times, placing the others in shadow when it makes sense, then using colors to provide a feeling of an underworld, especially in Fagin’s lair. Fagin, as the head of the crime syndicate to which Oliver is “employed”, is a devilish figure, so it makes sense for that characterization, but when I say that the theming carries over to all elements, consider Jasmine Joshua, who plays Fagin here, their hair colored to look like it’s literally on fire. Jocelyn Fowler’s costumes follow suit (pun intended) as well, in this combined impoverished London, punk rock theme. There is more leather in this show than I’ve seen this side of Cabaret, and everyone, and I do mean everyone, has eye makeup that makes their eyes look sunken and just this side of alive. The only creative area I might call out is in the area of sound, and only when it comes to certain volumes. There are a few actors whose singing is a little soft to be heard above the band, which is very good by the way, but for the most part the volumes are balanced. The one area I would look at for improvement in is when the character Nancy steps on to the band platform in a scene that mimics a performance, like Act 1’s “It’s a Fine Life”, or “Oom-Pah-Pah”, the Act 2 opener, and picks up the microphone to sing, I feel like if it is staged like a performance, it should sound like one, replete with the commensurate volume, but rather it’s the opposite, Alegra Batara’s voice tends to get drowned out by the ensemble since they’re positioned upstage from the larger group. The performance aspect is more apropos in “It’s a Fine Life”, as that’s the way the scene is presented, the latter has the feel of something more like an ad hoc party. And don’t get me wrong, Alegra is a fine vocalist, one just has to hear them sing “As Long As He Needs Me” to hear that, it’s just that the role is more suited to a pure belter, and Alegra doesn’t quite have the volume to overcome an ensemble the size of this one singing downstage, though perhaps some microphone adjustments could help this.

While I’m on the topic of Nancy, and Alegra, they’re just one piece of a supremely talented cast presenting this popular and energetically fun show. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s well worth taking it in, either by reading the original novel, or by coming out to see this musical. It centers on Oliver Twist, of course, who starts out in a work house for child laborers, where he steps out of line and asks for more gruel, then gets sold to an undertaker, escapes, runs away to London, meets the Artful Dodger who introduces him to Fagin with the promise of room, board, and employment, though he doesn’t know what kind of employment exactly, gets caught up in some nasty business, is arrested, is let go into a nice life, is kidnapped back to Fagin’s den, then back to the work house, and so on. This Oliver gets around quite a bit, and while the novel dresses his travels in the cloaks of oppression and poverty, the musical does it with more humor, and through one familiar and catchy song after another, starting with the classic “Food, Glorious Food”.

This opening number has everything that makes this production so good. It’s got an ensemble that is excellent in their harmony, powerful and full in their vocals, and precise in the delivery of their choreography. It’s a big number, and it sets the scene very well for the rest of the show. In fact, each ensemble number carries these characteristics, music director Sam Peters has the group sounding extremely sharp together and Annalisa’s choreography provides so much movement that there’s not one quiet moment in any of the numbers. Another example of this is in “Consider Yourself”, led initially by Tommy Beale’s Artful Dodger, as he’s welcoming Oliver Twist, played by Ankit Madhira, to Fagin’s “company”. The song, which starts simply as one person singing to another, soon is a punk rocking acrobatic number that is one of the highlights of Act 1. Beyond just the vocals, I like Tommy’s Dodger, he’s funny, and he’s welcoming, clearly with a good heart despite his lot in life. Dodger is Fagin’s “right hand”, Fagin who is played so good by Jasmine Joshua. Their Fagin is tough, but funny, a little softer here than in the original novel, and just a little bit, perhaps, crazy to boot. Jasmine, as Fagin, does perform what I believe is a true show stopping number with “Reviewing the Situation”. This is, by far, the most standout single performance of this production, and is among the best that I’ve seen this season, on any stage. Jasmine throws everything into this song, and the result is a memorable one for sure.

Just about everyone in the cast has a chance to shine, and most do. Sean Vale’s Mr. Bumble has a strong voice and his performance with Marnie Wingett as Window Corney in “Oliver” is solid and the pair are extremely funny together in “I Shall Scream”. “That’s Your Funeral”, after Oliver has been sold to undertaker Sowerberry (Meagan Kirby) and his wife (Jeannette LeGault), is another funny number, and while Jeannette’s volume is a little low to hear at times, Meagan shows off her range and effortless skill in this macabre song. The only callout I would have on Meagan’s performance on Thursday is in her delivery of the line that ends Act 1, I feel like a little more oomph would have driven the act home just a little bit more. Otherwise, her dual roles as both Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker and Mr. Brownlow, are both excellently performed. Steven Rigaux as Bill Sikes is good at being evil, case in point his Act 2 number “My Name”. Out of a crowd of criminals, Sikes is the one who is truly vicious, and the way he treats Alegra’s Nancy is downright irredeemable. Steven slithers across the stage in this role as if he’s a snake, and when Nancy has a moment (or two) of conscience, it’s because of and in spite of Sikes that she does. Alegra’s redemption arc is enough for everyone in this story. Finally, there is Oliver himself, and Ankit Madhira. Ankit is a fine Oliver, he’s energetic, happy despite what he’s been through, and always looking for his happy ending. Vocally, I found him on Thursday to skew a little flat at times, but generally I like his singing, he brings a fresh air to it, that and his hopefulness in songs like “Where is Love” and some added melancholy in “Who Will Buy?” The ensemble is rounded out by David Breyman, Zoe Carr, Elise Cohan, and Evan Ponyah, each part of the solid group that this cast is.

You may be familiar with the story of Oliver Twist, from the Dickens novel, from the Lionel Bart musical, or even from the Disney animated classic Oliver and Company, but I’ll bet you’ve never seen a version quite like the one currently on stage at the Theatre Off Jackson, produced by Reboot Theatre and directed by Scot Charles Anderson. A healthy mix of the backstreets of 1830s London and the UK of the 1970s punk rock era, this version of Oliver!, the musical, feels like an underground show, like it’s something we’re not supposed to be seeing, or even allowed to, but we are, and thank goodness. It’s a rocking, rollicking, rambunctious good time of a show, and while the plot of the musical is more like the Cliffs Notes version of the novel, that is more than made up for in entertainment value, while still hitting all of the major points. Reboot’s mission is to perform works with non traditional casting and design, and while, yes, this fits exactly with that mission, when a show is performed by a group as talented as this one is, the quality of the art stands on its own.

Oliver!, presented by Reboot Theatre, runs on stage at the Theatre Off Jackson in Seattle through April 5. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://reboottheatre.org/.

Photo credit: Colin Madison Photography