Trust the musical theater to make life as an orphan sound well almost fun. After opening on the West End in 1960 Lionel Bart's emOliver!/em successfully transferred to Broadway prefacing the British invasion of the 1970s and 1980s. Sam Mendes who also directed acclaimed London productions of emCompany/em and emCabaret/em (the latter one moving on to Broadway) was at the helm for this version and certainly got things moving at a clip--especially since Lionel Bart wrote some new music and lyrics and the score was snappily rearranged. Jonathan Pryce is a suitably larger-than-life Fagin and Sally Dexter shines as Nancy--her confrontation with Fagin and Miles Anderson's Bill Sikes in a new reprise of "It's a Fine Life" is pricelessly nasty. Going for maximum oomph and minimum sappiness this swell recording may make even emOliver!/emhaters reconsider._x000D__x000D_ 
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