Young Actors Shine On Rhinebeck Stage

Both “Oliver Twist,” the Charles Dickens novel, and “Oliver!” the musical by Lionel Bart, are lurid and enduring. It’s a cruel world, after all. Violence is visited upon children and women; there’s unceasing poverty, hunger and danger; and the class system is impenetrable — unless, of course you are the grandson of an aristocrat.

That’s the charming thing about “Oliver!” For one or two characters, both upper class as it turns out, there’s a happy ending. And somehow, this 1960 British musical not only survives after nearly six decades, it flourishes.

The Rhinebeck Theatre Society production at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck went all out on this big, long, complicated musical, with its hordes of scruffy children, seedy orphan keepers, good-hearted prostitutes — such as Nancy (Elizabeth Thomas), who pays with her life to save little Oliver from the terrible Bill Sykes (Jeremy Ratel) — the infamous and entertaining Fagin (Andy Crispell), numerous children like Artful Dodger (the very skilled Maya Schubert) and little Oliver himself (Madeleine Carolan).

The youngsters ran from really adorable to really talented. Both work. Director/choreographer Dorothy Luongo got the best out of every one of them. They loved being on stage; they knew what to do, and they did the numerous and complicated moves with joy. Little showboaters all.

Then there are the standouts. Lou Trapani, the center’s artistic director, as the startlingly class-conscious Dr. Grimwig displayed a lot of showmanship in a small role. And Linda Roper as the widow Corney was broadly comic and a pleasure to watch.

The only competition with the youngsters on stage came from the youngsters in the audience, some dressed spectacularly in sequins and silks, tagging after parents and grandparents. This show hit all the right notes, getting young people interested in theater and their elders interested in theater, too.

“Oliver!,” directed and choreographed by Dorothy Luongo with musical direction from Paul and JoAnne Schubert, runs at the Center for performing Arts at Rhinebeck through June 25. For tickets and information, call 845-876-3080 or go to www.centerforperformingarts.org.