Culture

Oliver! wows West End

by Paul Conneally | January 15, 2009 at 12:04 pm

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"More! More!" shouts the audience of the musical Oliver! which has opened to ecstatic crowds at London's Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.

The show has already taken £15m in advanced sales and stars Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, as Fagin and new face Jodie Prenger who was selected for the part of Nancy by the British public in the Andrew LLoyd Webber led TV talent show 'I'd do Anything'.

In these economically tight times its seems the public are prepared to pay what spare money they have on escapist, feel good, entertainment.

After Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! opened in the the West End in 1960 it had 2,618 performances over six years, employed 11 Olivers and ten Artful Dodgers and became the longest-running musical in London’s history. Now the hope is that Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s spectacular £4.5 million revival will inject much needed confidence into a nervous West End.

The show is already the fastest selling on record, with £15 million in advance ticket sales banked before it opened last night at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, £3 million more than Dirty Dancing managed in 2006.