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London Theatre programme
Broadway Playbill
'UK' Cinema poster artwork
'US' Cinema poster artwork
French Cinema poster artwork
World premiere programme
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As 'Oliver!' attains at last great dimensions of the silver screen and thus achieves immortality, far more than the transfer of a long-run, internationally-acclaimed stage success is involved. There is a triumph of another nature. For when Lionel Bart undertook to translate Charles Dickens classic novel 'Oliver Twist' into the terms of modern musical theatre, he was creating a grand climax to a tradition. With 'Oliver!' Dickens joins Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw as a prime source for our musical entertainment. 'Kiss me Kate' had emerged from Bard's 'The Taming of the Shrew;' 'My Fair Lady' had its origin in Shaw's 'Pygmalion.'
Bart had been enchanted by the special blend of innocence and sophistication in Dickens' novel, and inspired by it's extraordinary scope, for the drama unfolds against the spectacular and sharply contrasting backgrounds of both the poor and the elegant in 19th century London. Bart's new musical began its smash-hit-career July 1, 1960 in London, and for six years audiences there continued to take it to their hearts. David (42nd Street) Merrick brought it to Broadway in 1963, and for almost four years 'Oliver!' captivated theatregoers in New York and on tour throughout the United States. At the same time, it was being produced wherever English is spoken, and in many lands where it is not-most notably, in Japan.
Producer John Woolf, once the screen rights had been obtained, knew immediately that 'Oliver!' would have to be the biggest musical undertaken in Great Britain (a locale he felt was practically dictated by the nature of the subject). It would far transcend such films as his own 'Moulin Rouge' and 'The African Queen,' not to mention others which has made his name synonymous with distinguished entertainment. So he entrusted this new impressive assignment to as celebrated a team of talents as he could find: Carol Reed Director, John Green, Music Director, Onna White, Choreographer, John Box, Production Designer, Vernon Harris, Writer of the Screenplay, Oswald Morris, Director of Photography, and, at the head a very large and luminous cast, Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe, Shani Wallis, Jack Wild, and Mark Lester.
This was to be more than 'a big picture.' The timelessness of its theme, its depth of story and character, its richness of song and dance, its evocation of an era, all demand painstaking devotion, over a long period of production. The stage presentation had to be 'opened up,' so that the miracle of the movie camera might do justice to its several hundred actors amid new and lushly colourful vistas; and so that 110 musicians, and scores of singers, and the magic of sound engineering might give dimensions to its music. But it also had to be expanded by the addition of far more dancing than the limited confides of the stage had permitted.
A crew of 350 built the sets, and symbolic of their scope may these random examples of the materials used: 110 tons of scaffolding, 10 tons of nails and screws, 10,000 cobblestone slabs to return roadways to the last century, 1,000 gallons of mixed paints. But cold statistics can convey no sense of the warmth, charm, and 'heart' of the vivid life and crowded panorama which so many talents joined forces to create.
The movie cameras first rolled on this lavish musical production at Shepperton film studio's, in England, on June 23,1967.Then over 15 months later 'Oliver!' had its world Royal premiere in the presence of Her Royal Highness the Princess Margaret on September 26th 1968 at the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square, London England. The rest is cinema 'box office' history!
The 'Oliver!' Online Souvenir Book!
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