Highlighting the darker side of the musical, and like the fear and loneliness experienced by an orphaned Oliver, deBessonet is a matter of subtraction rather than addition. There are few competing elements to divert the audience’s attention from.
But she also said she didn’t need to accentuate the work’s brooding mood with foreboding lighting and fog machines. Darkness is already inherent in Dickens’ texts and Burt’s books, scores and lyrics.
“I try to get those words heard, believing that the complexity is in the lyrics themselves,” she said.
One example is the title song she said.Oliver!‘ is a high-spirited chorus that will be familiar to even those who have never seen the show.
“This is a really bouncy song,” deBessonet said.
There is a dark, narrow winding staircase
without railing
we beat him and feed him cockroaches
Supplied in a canister.
The show retains many of the musical’s more lighthearted elements. all the songs of . “Food, Glorious Food,” a dreamy sequence of sausage and mustard, jelly and custard. And her 20 additional performers, all students from New York City public schools, join the stage for “Consider Yourself.” The song features the boys vocally accepting Oliver into their ranks. The first real family he knows.
“The show is incredibly challenging. Domestic violence, the treatment of children at the time is really harrowing,” Debesone said.
