Oliver!
2009
Louise
Gold features as Mrs Sowerberry and Mrs Bedwin, her vocals are also elsewhere in the ensemble.
Catalogue
number: (CD – First Night
Records) CAST CD 105, album released 16 March 2009
Cast
Oliver – Laurence Jeffcoate
Mr Bumble – Julius D’Silva
Widow Corney – Wendy Ferguson
Matron –
Mr Sowerberry – Julian Bleach
Mrs Sowerberry – Louise Gold
Charlotte – Mary Cormack
Noah Claypole – David Roberts
Artful Dodger – Ross McCormack
Eccentric Dancer/Clown – Philip Catchpole
Fagin’s Gang – Tanners Gang: William Edden, Daniel Ferrari-Lane, Jake Goldman, Jack Hamshere, Dominic Hansford, Callum Henderson, Idress Kargbo, Jordan Li-Smith, Jermaine Nelson, and, Ben Wilson, plus Daniel Huttlestone as Nipper
Fagin – Rowan Atkinson
Bill Sikes – Burn Gorman
Nancy – Jodie Prenger
Bet – Charlotte Spencer
Mr Brownlow – Julian Glover
Punch And Judy Man – Tim Laurenti
The Landlord –
Boxers – Chris Bennett, and, Jay Bryce
Percy Snodgrass – Tom Edden
Little Sally – Lynne Wilmot
Mrs Bedwin – Louise Gold
Dr Grimwig – Julian Bleach
Rose Seller – Jenny Fitzpatrick
Milkmaid – Lyndsey Gardiner
Strawberry Seller – Sarah Lark
Knife Grinder – Hadrian Delacey
Posh Lady – Clare Rickard
House Maid – Cara Elston
Old Sally – Susan Fay
Eccentric Dancer/Hussar – Oliver Roll
Hussar’s Girl – Hollie Taylor
Nightwatchman – Robert Kershaw
Swings - Matthew Clark, Alison Dormer, Rebecca Louis, and, Spencer Stafford
Children’s Ensemble – Tanner’s Team: Edward
Birchinall, Gareth
Borrow, Lily Brooks, Anne Cockshott,
Production Team
Show Produced by – Cameron Mackintosh
Album Produced by – First Night Records
Book, Music and Lyrics by – Lionel Bart, based on the novel by Charles Dickens
Original Production – at The New Theatre (now known as The Noel Coward Theatre) 30 June 1960, with Sonia Fraser as Mrs Sowerberry, and, Madeleine Newbury as Mrs Bedwin
Musical Supervisor – Stephen Brooker
Orchestrations by – William David Brohn
Musical Director – Graham Hurman
sound Design –
Co-Directed & Choreographed by – Matthew Bourne
Directed by – Rupert Goold
Orchestra
Under the direction of - Graham Hurman
Keyboard/Assistant MD – Roger Davison
Violin/Mandolin – Oliver Lewis
Viola – Kate Wilkinson
Cello – Chris Fish
Double Bass – Steve McManus
Flute/Piccolo/Penny Whistle – Andy Findon
Oboe/Cor Anglais – Rebecca Wood
Clarinet / Eb Clarinet – Rachel Brown
Clarinet / Bass Clarinet / Flute – Duncan Ashby
Bassoon / Tenor Recorder – Gavin McNaughton
Horn – Matthew Gunner, and, Richard Clews
Trumpet / Flugelhorn – Pat White, and, Andy Gathercole
Trombone – Gordon Campbell, and, Ed Tarrant
Bass Trombone / Tuba / Euphonium – Adrian Hallowell
Electric / Acoustic Guitar / Banjo – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Percussion – Julian Poole, James Gambold, and, John Rockliffe
Accordion / Concertina – Mark Bousie
Orchestral Management – Sylvia Addison for Music Solutions
Produced for record by – Stephen Brooker, and, Stephen Metcalfe (with a little interference from Cameron Mackintosh)
Senior Engineer – Devin Workman
Recorded Live at - Theatre Royal Drury Lane January 2009 using the Red-TX-DE-RIG
Engineers –
Mixed at – Sphere Studios
Assistant Engineer – Ronan Phelan
Live Sound Supervisor- Tom Marshall
Mastered At Finesplice by – Ben Turner
Co-ordinated for First Night Records by – John Craig
Track Listing
1. Food Glorious Food – Oliver& Workhouse Children
(Laurence Jeffcoate
with the Tanners Gang and Tanners Team Children’s Ensemble)
2. Oliver! – Mr Bumble, Widow Corney, & Company (Julius
D’Silva, and, Wendy Ferguson, with members of both the Adult Ensemble, and the Tanners Gang and Tanners Team Children’s Ensemble)
3. I Shall Scream – Mr Bumble, and, Widow Corney (Julius D’Silva, and, Wendy
Ferguson)
4. Boy For
5. That’s Your
Funeral – Mr Sowerberry, Mrs Sowerberry, and,
Mr Bumble (Julian Bleach, Louise Gold, and, Julius D’Silva)
6. Coffin Music – Orchestra conducted by Graham Hurman,
(with spoken introduction from Louise
Gold – uncredited)
7. Where Is Love? – Oliver (Laurence Jeffcoate)
8. Consider Yourself – Dodger, Oliver & Company (Ross McCormack, Laurence Jeffcoate, Tanners Gang, and, Adult Ensemble)
9. Consider Yourself
(Reprise) –
Nipper, Dodger & Gang (Daniel Huttlestone, Ross
McCormack, and Tanner’s Gang)
10. You’ve Got To
Pick-A-Pocket Or Two
– Fagin & Gang (Rowan Atkinson
and Tanner’s Gang, with Ross McCormack, and, Daniel Huttlestone)
11. It’s A Fine Life –
12. I’d Do Anything –
13. Be Back Soon – Fagin & Gang (Rowan Atkinson, and, Tanner’s Gang, with Ross McCormack and Laurence Jeffcoat)
14. The Robbery – Orchestra & Company (Tanner’s Gang, Adult Ensemble, plus Julian Glover - uncredited)
15. Oom-Pah-Pah – Nancy & Company (Jodie
Prenger, and, Adult Ensemble)
16. My Name – Bill Sikes (Burn Gorman)
17. As Long As He
Needs Me – Nancy
(Jodie Prenger)
18. Where Is Love?
(Reprise) – Mrs Bedwin (Louise Gold)
19. Who Will Buy? – Oliver & Company (Laurence Jeffcoate,
and, Adult Ensemble, including: Jenny
Fitzpatrick, Lyndsey Gardiner, Sarah Lark, and, Hadrian DeLacey – uncredited)
20. It’s A Fine Life
(Reprise) –
Nancy, Fagin, Sikes, and, Dodger (Jodie Prenger, Rowan
Atkinson, Burn Gorman, and, Ross McCormack)
21. Reviewing The
Situation –
Fagin (Rowan Atkinson)
22. Oliver!
(Reprise) – Mr
Bumble, and, Widow Corney (Julius D’Silva, and, Wendy Ferguson)
23. As Long As He
Needs Me (Reprise)
– Nancy (Jodie Prenger)
24.
25. Reviewing The
Situation (Reprise)
– Fagin (Rowan Atkinson)
26. Finale – Company (Entire Company)
It
is not quite clear why when the Tanners
Gang are featured as Fagin’s Gang
on this recording, Nipper is being played by a member of the Shillings Gang.
In
the sleeve-notes that accompany the CD album, Louise Gold is pictured at least half a dozen times: On the page ‘That’s
Your Funeral’ she is in two pictures (top and bottom of the three
smaller ones) as Mrs Sowerberry; ‘Oliver! article by Stephen Brooker’ centre
fold shows her as the hat seller; ‘Oom-Pah-Pah...’
finds her in the main centrefold picture and also in one of the small ones
(second from right) as a drunk in the pub; ‘Who Will Buy’ one of the small
pictures (bottom left) as Mrs Bedwin
According
to the sleeve notes the album was mostly recorded on 14 January 2009, with some
additional material from the next six days. It used 112 microphones (the show
itself usually used 90).
All
of the cast featured
on this album of course appeared in Oliver!
There
is however one oddity, percussionist John
Rockliffe is listed as playing on this album but
he is not mentioned in the programmes as a member of the orchestra in the show
itself. It is possible he may be a dep and therefore
not credited in the show’s programme.
Representing the “Stars From Oliver!” Louise Gold, and, Jodie Prenger have taken part in Shopping With The Stars 2009, at which Julius D’Silva, and, Julian Bleach also put in appearances.
Louise Gold, and, Myra Sands have previously appeared together in the Discovering
Lost Musicals productions of: By Jupiter, One Touch Of Venus (1992 Production), DuBarry Was A Lady
(1993 Production), New Girl In Town, Red Hot & Blue, Something for The Boys, Panama Hattie, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and, One Touch Of Venus (2000 Production).
They also appeared together in Follies, as well as
taking part in a concert of highlights from the Ratepayer’s Iolanthe
& Metropolitan Mikado, and, Camberwell
Pocket Opera’s First Fundraising Gala. They have since gone on to appear in
another Lost Musical Darling of The
Day.
Julian Bleach had previously appeared in Topsy Turvy.
Rowan Atkinson had previously starred in BlackAdder, on which Louise Gold once appeared in an
episode.
Rowan Atkinson took part in Comic Relif
1986, his recording credits include Utterly Utterly
Live Comic Relief.
Julian Glover may have appeared in Kids At Heart.
Julian Glover, and, Myra Sands
may have taken part in Thing A Thon.
Cara Elston, Louise
Gold, Clare Rickard, and, Rebecca Louis had previously appeared
in Mary Poppins, on which Roger Davison, Chris Fish,
Duncan Ashby, Ed Tarrant, and, Adrian
Hallowell also played in the orchestra; and which Stephen Brooker was also involved with.
Cara Elston, Louise
Gold, and, Clare Rickard had
previously appeared in The Company Of Mary Poppins’s late night FUNdraising
show. For which Roger Davison played
on the band.
Steve McManus had previously played in the pit
orchestra for Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang, and in the band for Happily Ever After, he may also have played
in the band for A Time To
Start Living, and, Comedy Tonight. His
recording credits include Noel/Cole:
Let’s Do It (recording), and, Defiant Dames.
Stephen Brooker was also involved with conducting on
the album The Great Musicals – Laughter And Tears, and, 100 Hits
Musicals.
John Craig had previously been involved in
producing Ziegfeld (recording).
Wendy Ferguson, Louise
Gold, and, Myra Sands have gone
on to appear in Mexican Hayride.
Philip Catchpole, and, Louise Gold
went on to appear in Gypsy, on which Paul Groothius
also worked.
Note
the critic Ken Caswell, reviewing
this album for Musical Stages (quoted some way below), has in fact appeared at
Theatre Royal Drury Lane himself, he
was in the chorus of The Pirates Of
Penzance.
Review
by
Fizzing with energy, this album attempts to
capture the new revival. Of course being an album it can only capture the
sounds of the show, which does not do full justice to Cameron Mackintosh’s vast production. If you see the show you can
see just how very full the huge
Of course Oliver! is a classic show and as such has been subject to various recordings, some good, some not so good. This recording, with it’s shear verve is surely one of the better ones. Of course one might prefer some of the individual interpretations on other recordings to this one, but then again we all like different things and sometimes one person may prefer version A over version B of a song, while another person might prefer version B to version A. It doesn’t always mean a version is superior, just different ideas. Of course some versions of even classic songs can be truly terrible. Fortunately on this recording none of the performances are terrible. It is noticeable that all the performers very sensibly do not try to imitate what has gone before, but do the songs in whatever way is right for them as individuals and right for the production as a whole.
This is an album that while bound to be an initial popular best seller, by all the rules of what sort of casting will actually endure and become a musical theatre standard recording it shouldn’t. And yet I think in actual fact it may very well endure and become a standard. It contains all sorts of people whom while they might be great talking point casting to draw in an audience; you might not expect to actually achieve a lasting effect on their roles. All the sorts of performers serious Musical-theatre fans might mock the very idea of them doing an album of a major musical, all the things that could be dismissed as publicity stunts:: Winners of Television Talent contests, Famous ‘celebrity’ Television actors, stage actors who haven’t done professional musicals before, child stars etc etc .Yet somehow this group of apparent Musical Theatre misfits all thrown together in an incredible swirling rich audio mix, a vast soundscape (that fits in everything and everyone of the cast) works, and produces a brilliant sounding cast album of a classic musical.
The named stars of the album are of course Rowan Atkinson and Jodie Prenger, in the roles originally
made famous by Ron Moody and Georgia Brown. While Rowan Atkinson is not Ron Moody, he is nevertheless
convincing. His performance of You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two
is quite distinctively Rowan Atkinson.
However, when he sings Reviewing The Situation he is so
completely into the character of Fagin, that if one were to just hear that
recording without knowing who it was one would not recognise him from the voice
alone. While Jodie Prenger
makes
Then there’s the two child-stars, Laurence Jeffcoate does well in the title role, a sympathetic portrayal, just the right mixture of spunk and innocence. For the three boys who won the role on I’d Do Anything, I do think he’s the best. Harry Stott is an excellent actor, and Gwion Wyn Jones very appealing, but Laurence Jeffcoat fits the part so very well. Ross McCormak makes an excellent Artful Dodger (though Robert Madge would I think also have been a good choice). I was somewhat relieved the album didn’t use Eric Dibb-Fuller for the purposes of the recording
In addition to these stars there’s Burn Gorman, who clearly benefited from the show’s lengthy previews, giving him time to hone his character, and come of with a fine rendition of My Name. Sarah Lark and company acquit themselves well with Who Will Buy. Meanwhile Wendy Ferguson and Julius De Silva, as Widow Corny and Mr Bumble, though a bit over the top to my taste, nevertheless sound satisfactory, they do not detract from the album. Meanwhile Julian Glover can be heard in a few pieces of spoken dialogue, that’s rather special given that his association with Lionel Bart’s work goes right back to Bart’s Unity Theatre days, and he isn’t the only connection with that period Bart’s career..
Graham Hurman conducts the album. I feel that he takes It’s A Fine Life much to fast barely giving Jodie time to do Lionel Bart’s wonderful lyrics full justice (she manages, but she shouldn’t have to). However, there are other numbers, notably Food Glorious Food, and, I’d Do Anything, what have benefited from being a little speeded up (compared to the original cast album). Oom Pah Pah also seems to work rather well. While Consider Yourself gives the orchestra a chance to really let itself go. The album includes most of the songs from the show, including such tuneful pieces as Boy For Sale, and Be Back Soon. In fact Be Back Soon is a gorgeous song, whose lyrics almost give a clue to it’s origins, they so include such lines as “ain’t that a lovely tune” and “do not forget this tune”, it did date back to Bart’s Unity days, with Jack Grossman, but it is a lovely tune. I was a little disappointed that the album ends with the Finale, and does not include the post finale reprise of Consider Yourself. However one can’t have everything, and they probably couldn’t have squeezed any more onto the single CD. That is a very minor detail when it is such a joy to have this album and all the other songs (including reprises) on it.
Anyone who buys this album will have their own favourite bits on it. My favourites are of course That’s Your Funeral, and the reprise of Where Is Love, two pieces not always included on recordings of this show. It’s a real joy, for the first time in years, to find Louise Gold featured on a truly new recording of a musical theatre album, it makes a welcome change form endless repeats of excepts on numerous compilation albums (good though some of those are, and of course they may bring her work to a wider audience). That’s Your Funeral is a terrific comedy song, with some lovely lyrics for really skilful singer-actors to play with. Louise Gold and Julian Bleach make the most of them. Lionel Bart was a terrific lyricist, and Louise Gold happens to be the sort of singer who really comes into her own when singing decent lyrics that she can have fun interpreting. So it’s an absolute winning combination to have her singing Bart’s lyrics. It’s a combination that was just meant to be. How lovely to have it on an album. But Gold isn’t just a great comedy singer, with a powerful voice. She can also be very sweet and subtle, as she proves in her beautiful dulcet handling of (a track which might have been intended for Rosemary Leach on this album) the reprise of Where Is Love. What a wide vocal range she has! Thank goodness this often forgotten reprise has been included. In addition to all this, if you listen very carefully to The Robbery, you can just hear a distinctive voice say “Gentlemen’s hats here.” What a range of performances from a truly versatile lady. How lovely to hear her in talents so well used, and to have her singing Lionel Bart’s songs.
It’s such
a rich diverse album, that there really is something to cater to a wide variety
of customers. Of course Jodie Prenger will be deservedly the lions
share of reasons and many more might also choose it because of Rowan Atkinson. However: whether you
want to hear the winners of a TV talent contest, whether you want famous
television actors singing classic musical theatre songs. Or whether you want to
hear a new recording involving some stalwart
Critics Comments
“All the benefits of recording a musical
live are here. Audience reaction and the intimacy of live performance come
across very well. The main drawback is that the actors are playing to one of
the largest auditoriums in
“That's Your Funeral is rather
dark, but very funny too. It takes place quite near the start of the show and
is the fifth track here. Oliver Twist is taken from the workhouse to work at
the funeral parlour owned by Mr and Mrs Sowerberry.
The song is performed by Mr Bumble (Julius D'Silva),
Mr Sowerberry (Julian Bleach) and Mrs Sowerberry (Louise Gold).” Karenuk for DOOYOO Records.
Links about Oliver! 2009
Official Show site: http://www.oliverthemusical.com/
Dress Circle’s entry for this album: http://www.dresscircle.co.uk/product.asp?StockID=34875
First Night Records’s Official Site: http://www.first-night-records.com/index.php
(parts of the site do not always appear to work very well)
Dooyoo Records’s page for the CD (includes a review): http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/music-records/london-cast-recording-2009-london-cast/1219331/
Agency Licensing Campaign
(article in The Stage): http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/31022/theatre-stars-back-campaign-for-talent-agency,
and Online Petition (which anyone
who supports it can sign): http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41085.html , seeing as Rebecca Louis is among the
performers supporting this worthy campaign.
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