Holden Provides 'Oliver!' with Much-Needed Spark

By Kevin Nance
Staff Writer

For its first half, Oliver!, Circle Players' production of the Lionel Bart musical based on Charles Dickens' novel about waif who finds shelter in a band of pickpockets, crawls along in largely dispiriting ways.

The depressing set, attributed to Jack Hoke, is almost nonexistent.  The direction, by Stephen Henry, feels mechanical; ditto for the performances by adult and child actors alike.  You keep looking for some sort of spark, anything at all to make this familiar story and music flair into a crackling flame.

I admit that I've seen very few productions of this musical (which reduces Dickens' beautifully fleshed-out main characters to stick figures), but I'll go out on a limb anyway:  This is the most thrilling performance of this number that you'll ever hear in a theater production, community or professional.

Holden nails the song with her rich voice, and - far more important - she acts it to the hilt.  If you've thought of this tune as a pleasant little ballad, she disabuses you of the notion; she reveals it as a desperate cry of the heart from a woman ferociously affirming her affection for a brute, despite her full knowledge that he's likely to kill her.

After this blast, you feel more charitable toward the whole show and realize that it has other virtues:  the spunk and strong singing voice of Ned Hildebrand as the Artful Dodger; Lon Gary's lilting way with several of Fagin's songs; and especially the tough little band, crisply led by Andrew Bryan and featuring especially sharp playing by violinist Steven Crichlow.

But even if these strengths were absent, Holden's sensational musical performance would be well worth the price of admission.