SONG
& DANCE
EVEN
BEHIND THE
SCENES
THE SCORE of Oliver! is so infectiously tuneful that it spreads merriment where
Potter smiled. “It was a telling and beautiful moment,” he y observed. “The company was trul
silence and professionalism usually prevail. The Brunswick produc-
an extended Brunswick family. , Everyone was made to feel special ” to ‘consider yourself one of us!’
tion was no exception. “I loved the opening of Act II,” Potter said, recalling the tipsy bravado of the drinking song in
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT
Hayden Hoover ’18 as Mr. Bumble; l ’23; Campbell Officer ’23; Johnny Rieh ’20), (GA e Shor Lily ’24), (GA y Lahe Cash Tyler ’25); (GA z tane Mon and Ruby Wilson ’22; and Christian Larkin ’23
which the entire company joins. “‘Oom-Pah-Pah, Oom-Pah-Pah [That’s How It Goes]’ was absolutely wonderful! On stage, the
thin, whitish, watery breakfast porridge
its most vulnerable and least powerful —
— as the picaresque and romantically
and the musical certainly doesn’t shy away
sentimental tale begins.
from the wretched and sordid underpin-
With a tentative, trembling and now-
nings of Dickens’ original work.
actors sang and danced. “Backstage, the technicians did the same.”
famous request — “Please, sir, I want some
In fact, the music makes it all pain-
more.” — Oliver makes his debut as the first
fully clear and memorable: A tale replete
boy protagonist of an acclaimed English-
with baleful songs of child slavery (“Boy
language novel. Dickens uses the orphan’s
for Sale”), the most brutal and bloody
Potter, who has directed a different winter
bleak circumstances to propel an adventure
domestic violence (“As Long as He Needs
musical for each of the last 12 years, was
that offers a cynical and unsparing view of
Me”), and vagabond thievery (“You’ve Got
particularly intrigued by the possibilities
how a “civilized” Victorian society cared for
to Pick a Pocket or Two”).
and lessons of Oliver! — and not simply
Upper School Theater teacher Seth
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