REVIEW: Chichester’s superb Oliver! will leave you begging for more

Chichester’s Oliver! offers a night of dazzling theatre of the highest order. You’ll struggle to think of anything you’ve seen that surpasses it, not just at the Festival Theatre but at any theatre anywhere. It’s got the power, the compassion, the cruelty and the love – plus all the wonderful songs. But maybe what you take away most is the fact that it looks absolutely stunning at every single moment in the pictures it paints, the lighting, the effects, the movement, the colours… Everything. As a production it really is absolutely beautiful.

And then there are the performances, and what performances they are. Three youngsters alternate in the role of Oliver, and tonight’s Oliver was Cian Eagle-Service, a remarkable performance which manages to combine complete self-assurance with vulnerability, spirit and decency. Eagle-Service sitting on a coffin singing Where Is Love? is going to stay with us a long, long time. Ditto Shanay Holmes’ spine-tingling As Long As He Needs Me, plus its reprise – heart-breakingly poignant, incredibly powerful and so so haunting. Extraordinary artistry.

And then there is Simon Lipkin, superlative as Fagin, complex, rich and fascinating, an absolute crook, but with a genuine concern for the gang of thieves he is schooling and also with a self-awareness that makes Reviewing The Situation so compelling– one of several numbers on the night which felt as if they were one person away from a standing ovation mid-show. Lipkin makes you feel for Fagin in a way which unsettles – a performance of huge power and skill, not least in all the comedy he brings to it.

And there is similar unexpected complexity to Aaron Sidwell’s Bill Sikes, a deeply menacing, sinister bully and a brute, yet Sidwell hints at something more. There is real tenderness between him and Nancy before his warped sense of betrayal provokes the night’s most shocking act. There is evil there, but Sidwell’s supreme skill ensures it is far from one-dimensional. Lovely too, at the very opposite end of the moral scale, is Philip Franks’ Mr Brownlow, giving real life to kindness and decency in a man given the most unexpected of second chances. Adding hugely to the mix is Billy Jenkins as the Artful Dodger, orchestrating beautifully a Consider Yourself which seems to wake up the whole of London, a song which develops into the most rousing of ensemble pieces.

Put all the characters together, put them on a stage as visually striking as this one, give them the songs, the fabulous orchestrations – and you get the perfect show, especially in a second half which adds real threat into the spectacle. Justin Audibert’s first season as Chichester Festival Theatre’s artistic director is proving a seriously impressive and significant summer.

Cameron Mackintosh’s aim in reconceiving the musical was to take it right back to the time he first saw it as a 13-year-old. He delivers it now with huge vitality and freshness, combining with director and choreographer Matthew Bourne to ensure the most massive of hits – not just here but very soon in London too.