In November 1982 the Bristol Light Opera Club staged Lionel Bart’s Oliver!, adapted from Dickens’s Oliver Twist, for a week at the Bristol Hippodrome, directed by Sally Noble with choreography by Edwina Lloyd in her first show for the Club. The programme reports that “well over 100 turned up for auditions” for the workhouse boys, and that “the whole cast in fact numbers nearly 100”, making it “the biggest, brightest” production of the Club’s “49th year and 27th show at the Bristol Hippodrome”. Brian Harding added Fagin to “his long list of portrayals”, Oliver, the Artful Dodger and the boys’ gang alternated between two teams, and Sheba, an English white bull terrier, appeared as “Bullseye”. Chairman Alan Seager’s reflections look ahead to the Club’s 50th birthday.
Cast
- Oliver Twist — Aidan D’Arcy / Gary Simmons
- Mr. Bumble — Tony Holley
- Widow Corney — Faith Roberts
- Mr. Sowerberry — Alex Turasiewicz
- Mrs. Sowerberry — Zia Kruger
- Charlotte — Alison Sutton
- Noah Claypole — Eric Arnold
- The Artful Dodger — Jamie Manton / Michael Haslett
- Fagin — Brian Harding
- Nancy — Louise Plowright
- Bet — Sarah Milne
- Mr. Brownlow — Ken Matthews
- Bill Sykes — Rod Young
- Mrs. Bedwin — Iris Shopland
- Dr. Grimwig — Dennis Dew
- Old Sally — Rose Pellowe / Anne Barnard
- Annie — Anne Barnard / Rose Pellowe