Consider yourself at home with Lionel Bart's classic musical based on the Charles Dickens 1838 novel, Oliver Twist. The Tony and Olivier Award-winning show is one of the few musicals to win an Academy Award for Best Picture and is widely hailed as a true theatrical masterpiece by actors and audience members alike.

Oliver! premiered in London on June 30, 1960, where it ran for an impressive, record-breaking 2,618 performances. After being brought to the U.S. in 1963, Oliver! ran for 774 performances on Broadway. Lionel Bart received the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Many songs are well known, such as "Food, Glorious Food," "Consider Yourself," "I'd Do Anything" and "As Long As He Needs Me." 

Additionally, its 1968 film adaptation earned six Academy Awards including Best Picture. It has since been revived in London in 1977, 1994 and 2009, with a tour launching in the UK in 2011. The show had a Broadway revival in 1994.

Oliver! received thousands of performances in British schools, becoming one of the most popular school musicals.  The musical has been performed around the world, including productions in Australia, Singapore, Estonia, Israel, Belgium, Syria and Dubai.

Act One  (Set in Victorian England of the 1830s)

The musical opens as the half-starved workhouse boys file in to a large barren room, take their places at tables and dream of gorging on delicious eats but are only given gruel to satisfy their hunger. One boy dares to ask for more from the beadle(warden). The request causes outrage in Mr. Bumble and the Widow Corney, the heartless and greedy caretakers of the workhouse.  They chase down the boy and demand to know his name before deciding how to punish him.

After the chaos in the dining room, the Widow Corney and Mr. Bumble retire to the Widow’s parlor. Widow Corney offers Mr. Bumble some gin to calm his nerves, which gives him the courage to kiss her and propose marriage.  A guard interrupts them with Oliver in tow.  Mr. Bumble takes the boy to sell him as an apprentice.

Mr. Bumble and Oliver arrive at the Sowerberry’s funeral home where Oliver will become a coffin-follower for children’s funerals. Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry taunt them, causing Mr. Bumble to become angry and storm out. Oliver is given a meager meal of scraps meant for the dogs and shown his bed amongst the coffins.

The next morning Noah Claypole, a brash employee of Sowerberry, instigates a fight by insulting Oliver’s dead mother. Oliver gets trapped in a coffin as Noah leaves to find Mr. Bumble to come and take back Oliver. Amidst the chaos, Oliver escapes.

After a week on the run, Oliver, hungry and exhausted, ends up in the city of London and meets a boy about his age known as The Artful Dodger. Dodger invites Oliver to join him and his friends.  Dodger takes him to Fagin’s lair, where he is welcomed by Fagin and his boys and introduced to their line of work, picking pockets.  After the boys have gone to bed, the sinister Bill Sikes arrives and unloads his burgled loot for Fagin before sneaking back into the night.

The next day, Oliver meets Nancy, an older member of Fagin's gang, and Bet, her young friend.   The boys sing about how they don't mind a bit of danger. Nancy singles out Dodger to demonstrate the way rich people treat each other. She immediately takes a shine to young Oliver. 

Nancy leaves to return to Bill Sikes before he wakes up. Fagin sends the boys off to start the morning’s pickpocketing, leaving Oliver under the tutelage of Dodger. In the streets of London, Dodger robs his first victim, Mr. Brownlow. He flees the scene, leaving Oliver to be caught for the crime.

Act Two

In The Three Cripples pub, Nancy is encouraged by the clientele to perform an old tavern song. The fun and revelry are immediately stopped when Bill Sikes arrives, striking fear throughout the entire pub.

Dodger runs in to inform Fagin that Oliver has been caught and taken off to Mr. Brownlow’s house. Fearing that Oliver will betray the gang's hideout, Fagin and Bill Sikes decide to kidnap Oliver before he talks. Bill violently threatens Nancy to retrieve the boy.

At Brownlow's house, Oliver is given a clean bill of health by a doctor, and Mr. Brownlow allows him to return some books and pay a debt just up the street.  On the street, Oliver is abducted by Nancy and Bill Sikes and returned to Fagin’s den. Oliver tries to escape. Bill threatens to bludgeon him, but Nancy intervenes, taking the brunt of Bill’s violence herself. All exit, leaving Fagin alone as he ponders his life of crime.

Back at the workhouse, Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney, now unhappily married, are interrupted in their arguing by a visit from Old Sally, a former workhouse employee.  She tells them that Oliver's mother, Agnes, died after childbirth and left a single gold locket.  The Bumbles set out to retrieve Oliver, hoping that they can track down his rich family. 

The Bumbles arrive at Mr. Brownlow’s in response to an advertisement asking for any knowledge of Oliver’s whereabouts. Mr. Brownlow realizes that the Bumbles are only out for personal gain and sends them away. But he recognizes the face in the locket as his daughter, Agnes, and he realizes that Oliver is his grandson.  

Nancy meets Mr. Brownlow in secret and promises to deliver Oliver to him at midnight on the London Bridge. 

Nancy and Oliver arrive at the London Bridge, only to be surprised by a stalking Bill Sikes. Nancy will not let Bill take Oliver. He throws her to the ground and bludgeons her to death. Mr. Brownlow arrives a moment after and sees Bill fleeing the scene. Alerting a crowd, they chase Bill, with Oliver as his hostage, onto the bridge, where they corner him. A sharpshooter successfully hits Bill, who falls to his death.  Oliver is reunited with Mr. Brownlow and Mrs. Bedwin, the kindly housekeeper.

Fagin, having successfully avoided capture, decides that maybe it is time to turn over a new leaf after all and leave the life of crime.