‘Oliver!’ at Flagler Playhouse

“Oliver!” the musical, at Flagler Playhouse, 301 E Moody Blvd, Bunnell. Tickets at $30. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m., from Sept. 23 to Oct. 9. Book tickets here. “Oliver!,” based on Charles Dickens’s 1838 novel, Oliver Twist, is a coming-of-age stage musical written by Lionel Bart and originally staged in London in 1960. Bart won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Original Score. The score includes such pieces as “Food, Glorious Food”, “Consider Yourself” and “I’d Do Anything.” The streets of Victorian England come to life as Oliver, a malnourished orphan in a workhouse, becomes the neglected apprentice of an undertaker. Oliver escapes to London and finds acceptance amongst a group of petty thieves and pickpockets led by the elderly Fagin. When Oliver is captured for a theft that he did not commit, the benevolent victim, Mr. Brownlow takes him in. Fearing the safety of his hideout, Fagin employs the sinister Bill Sikes and the sympathetic Nancy to kidnap him back, threatening Oliver’s chances of discovering the true love of a family. The stage adaptation of the novel is much simplified, with  Fagin played to comedic effect rather than villainy.