Cast brings talent, energy to 'Oliver!'

SUFFOLK

Last year Suffolk audiences saw Peter Pan fly.  This weekend, they'll have their pockets picked by a charming band of scruffy urchins in hardscrabble Dickensian London.

For its sophomore season, the Suffolk Community Players will bring 1830s London alive at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts with songs, dances, scheming and dreaming as it presents Lionel Bart's beloved musical "Oliver!"

Based on Charles Dickens' second novel, "Oliver Twist," the musical sings of the trials and travails of the title's young innocent who escapes from a workhouse only to join a gang of young pickpockets who are guided by the charming and conniving Fagin.

Bolt's musical debuted in London's West End in 1960 and has been performed on Broadway, in revivals, and as a 1968 Academy Award- winning film along with roadshows and community theater productions around the world.

"You can't help but love the music. It's packed full of hit songs we've all heard for years," said director Mark Hudgins.

Songs including the opener "Food, Glorious Food," will be enlivened by a 16-piece orchestra made up of Christopher Newport University students.

"People will love the musical numbers, the funny scenes and the choreography," said Carrie Mae Barba, a Portsmouth resident cast as Nancy, who played the lead role in last year's production of "Peter Pan." "We have many good character actors who shine in their smaller roles. It will all be very visual, with lots of great characters to enjoy."

In keeping with the Center's mission to reach out to and involve the community, the musical will feature a cast of children and adults hailing from Suffolk, Western Tidewater, the Peninsula, the Southside and North Carolina.

"There's some fabulous talent here and a lot of new faces" said Smithfield resident Collon Norman, a Smithfield Little Theatre vet cast as Fagin. "And if people realized what a short time we've had getting this all together, they'd be amazed. "

And Hudgins said just because the cast is made up of "amateurs," don't think there's no expertise on stage.

"This may be 'community theater' but the talent, desire and energy are all there; these people have just as much heart and talent (as professionals)," said Hudgins who has worked on three previous productions of "Oliver!" "The only difference between these non-professionals and professionals is a paycheck. "

Kate Robinson, a Portsmouth resident who is the production's stage manager, echoed Hudgins' assessments.

"I love watching the whole process come together: from the auditions, to the script readings, to the blocking, to the actors formulating their characters, to the final outcome," said Robinson, a veteran tech theater expert who worked on last year's inaugural Suffolk Community Players' production of "Peter Pan" and other Suffolk Center presentations. "This is coming along; we've had a few minor setbacks with the snow, but we are rolling."

Robinson said this production won't feature a special effect like last year's, when Peter Pan flew across the stage, but the audience will nonetheless be wowed by the infectious energy of the children who play Fagin's gang.

"They're this year's 'special effect,' " she said.

They'll also be hooked by the onstage charms of Suffolk's McNatt family. Mom Dana is a part of the ensemble cast as a strawberry seller, and 9-year-old son Logan is a part of Fagin's gang. Two of the musical's top roles - the Artful Dodger and Oliver - will be played by brothers Tanner, 13, and Kalen, 11, respectively.

Both are veterans of Regent University films and other cinema including the recent PBS program on Dolly Madison where Kalen was cast in the brief role of Dolly's son.

In addition, Kalen played Michael in last year's "Peter Pan."

"When rehearsals are cancel ed, they get annoyed," Dana McNatt said with a laugh. "This all comes easy to them. It's amazing."

"I really want to have fun, it brightens my whole day up," said Kalen, a student at Creekside Elementary School, who plays Oliver.

Older sibling Tanner, who attends John Yeatts Middle School, plays the Artful Dodger.

"The theater is fun, I like it. It's exciting; I like feeling big on the stage," Tanner said. "And it's pretty cool being on stage with my brother all the time."

Unlike the bright, happy fairy tale feel of "Peter Pan," Hudgins said this tale of 1800s London street life is a little darker.

"This is Dickens, after all, with all its social mores and class distinctions" he said. "But with this music, this great cast, these kids, people will come away having spent two hours having fun with the magic of theater."

In fact, the audience just might clamor, "Please sir, I want some more."

Eric Feber, 222-5203,

eric.feber@pilotonline.com