BRATTLEBORO — Celebrating the kickoff of the 15th year, the New England Youth Theatre's artistic director, Stephen Stearns, will direct the return of “Oliver!”
This musical, based on a novel by Charles Dickens, was the last show that NEYT performed seven years ago in its original space in the Latchis complex before the company moved from a former Chinese restaurant to its new theater on Flat Street.
Returning to “Oliver!” is a sentimental journey for those involved with NEYT, including cofounder Gerald Stockman.
“At the end of the last performance there, each of the cast members chose a prop from the production and together paraded down Flat Street to NEYT's new theater, which had been constructed but in which nothing had yet been performed,” Stockman says. “Doing 'Oliver!' again gives us a chance to recall that highly emotional moment which was a cause for great celebration.”
Stearns wants to make clear that the new “Oliver!” is not a revival, but a completely fresh staging.
The 2013 production is a rethinking and expansion of the original show, which, its producers say, promises to be a testament to how NEYT has grown over the years and to the company's capabilities in its new performing space and with the help of the technology there.
One of the most beloved musicals of all time, Lionel Bart's “Oliver!” had its London premiere in 1960, followed by the equally successful Broadway production in 1963 and a movie adaptation in 1968, which won the Oscar for Best Picture, an honor shared by only nine other musicals in the history of the Academy Awards.
“Oliver!” is NEYT's holiday show, which although always celebrated for being spectacular, will be even more so this year. With a budget of over $20,000 this production will be perhaps the largest, grandest, and most dazzling show ever put on by NEYT.
“It is a big show, a big production, and we are pulling out all the stops,” says Stearns.
“Our holiday show traditionally has a redemptive quality where in the end good triumphs over evil,” Stockman says. “Although Dickens' novel can be quite dark, and even some of that is in the musical, the ending is quite uplifting.”
“I always choose a holiday show that has a miracle in it,” Stearns says. “Our other holiday shows in the past like 'The Music Man' and 'The Sound of Music' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' have had last-minute miracles, even if they come in unusual ways. Some form of saving grace makes for a joyous finish.”
The 2013 version of “Oliver!” features a cast that is much larger than in the earlier production, he says: 70 kids, an increase of 25 more actors over the previous staging.
“Oliver!,” Stockman says, “will showcase the remarkable talent of our current group of young performers at NEYT who have the chops for this kind of thing.”
And, of course, the performance remains a learning experience for all.
“In each new show, we try to bring our actors up one level in performing ability,” Stockman says. “They may not be there when we begin rehearsal but they are on the show's opening night. These are kids anxious to learn.”
“There will be some experimental casting in this 'Oliver!'” adds Stockman. “Fagin, the ringleader of the group of boy pickpockets, will be played by a young woman, Maia Struthers-Friedman, who was the best person to do justice to that show-stopping role.”
“Nancy will be played by senior Maia Gilmour, who has developed a strong Broadway voice,” says Stearns. “And the Artful Dodger will be performed by the charismatic Isaac Freitas-Eagan, who knocked the ball out of park in his audition. With a strong Fagin, Nancy, Artful Dodger, Bill Sykes (played by Isiaha Greene) and Oliver (played by Liam Johnson), we were ready to go.”
But a show is more than the people in it. “Oliver!” also has a strong collection of seasoned professionals working behind the scenes.
“NEYT works as well as it does only because there are so many gifted and generous artists in our community who are willing if not eager to work with us,” says Stockman.
He cites the work of graphic artist John Gurney, who created the poster for NEYT's original production of the play and is updating that poster for the new show. “Gurney also is the show's scenic artist, and did the evocative set paintings,” Stockman says.
Becky Graber, the music director of the Brattleboro Women's Chorus, is the music director. And, “perhaps most exciting of all, Alki Steriopoulos, the celebrated concert pianist, singer/songwriter, musical director, and musician, will be accompanying our singing actors on piano,” he says.
'People just won't believe what they will be seeing'
“Our performing space is now twice as large as that postage stamp we had at the Latchis,” Stearns says, “so we have much more room to do remarkable things onstage.”
Stearns says the scale and scope will be a huge contrast to that previous offering.
“We will have bigger and more exciting dances that are just spectacular,” he says. “We will have three times the amount of lights than we had in our former space. We also have installed three Broadway-quality microphones. The costumes are on a Broadway-show level.
“People just won't believe what they will be seeing. I think that there are over 300 detailed period-costumes in this production.”
Stearns warned theatergoers not to be on the fence about going to see this show, as “tickets won't last long.”
“All seats are reserved. This is no open-seating show, and you can select the very seat you wish to purchase, just like in the big theaters in New York.”
But, he predicts, after the first weekend, “when everyone is raving about the show, there won't be any tickets left, and those eager to see it will be stuck waiting in our standby line.“