Tucked within Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is a smaller, award-winning gem known as the Area Stage, which is currently transformed into a Victorian England street scene for the production of Lionel Bart’s OLIVER!
Running through February 25, the cleverly unconventional format seats the audience side by side on benches with waist-high wooden tables that span nearly the full width of the theater. Some of the casts’ characters arrive on stilts in floor-length costumes that allow the audience to see them in full view. Other characters on foot can cascade atop the wooden tables, bringing the stage action within the audience itself! Creative indeed!
The new, epic staging of Lionel Bart’s classic musical is based on the Charles Dickens 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.
The streets of 19th century 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 eclectic, engaging performance of OLIVER is fun for the entire family – don’t miss it!
LIONEL BART’S OLIVER! is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. (www.mtishows.com)
Call the Box Office for tichets at 305-949-6722 or click here.
