Consider yourself exhausted by show’s frantic pace

OLIVER!, Palace, Manchester, to March 10

POOR Lionel Bart: his tragedy was that he wrote about 20 songs that stand against the greatest tunes in any musical. Then he went and put them all in one show, and never managed to do it again.

It is, in one way, quite sad to think that producer Cameron Mackintosh has now produced more versions of this one show than Bart produced different shows.

This isn’t simply another round-Britain trip for his 1994 multi-million-pound extravaganza for the Palladium, nor even of the even bigger production he put together in 2009, which ran until last year, but a still-different one based on that, with a new director, new set and extra choreography.

And in a show of highlights — from the magnificent, epic set with its great depth and highly-detailed London backdrops and descending bridge, to the glorious sight of the Palace’s huge stage teeming with people — it could be that this new touring show is just a little too full for its own good.

The performances, and the show’s look and feel, aren’t the problem. The cast’s energy, from the unexpectedly strong Fagin of Neil Morrissey through the astonishing intensity of Samantha Barks as Nancy to the cheery professionalism of the boys (last night Harry Polden and Max Griesbach as Oliver and Dodger), this is a huge cast, positively overrun with liveliness.

But director Laurence Connor and MD Toby Higgins push the pace so hard at times that the actors can barely get their lyrics into the songs fast enough to keep up.

And then there is the “additional choreography” of Geoffrey Garratt. Oliver! has always been a high-energy work, but ballet maestro Matthew Bourne’s choreography for the 1994 revival is here fiddled with, presumably to match the directing changes.

The result is that If a performer isn’t moving in three directions at once, it’s probably because he is supposed to be a corpse.

For just about the first time as a reviewer I have to say that at times the stage is simply too busy.

But if you aren’t a purist, go and enjoy: my reservations are minor set against the pleasures of Britain’s greatest musical.