Oliver!, 1963

The run closed November 14, 1964

Opened

January 6, 1963

Closed

November 14, 1964

Performances

774

Previews

Unknown

Theatre

Imperial Theatre

Of the 605 productions we hold that opened in the 1960s and carry a performance count, this is the 28th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Other stagings of Oliver! 3 more that season

Who was in it66 named

C

Clive Revill1930–2025

Georgia Brown1933–1992

B

Bruce Prochnikb. 1948

W

Willoughby Goddard1926–2008

H

Hope Jackman

D

Danny Sewell1930–2001

David Jones1947–2016

G

Geoffrey Lumb

J

John Call

A

Alice Playten1947–2011

C

Christopher Votos

Barry Humphries
Jed Allan
Johnny Borden
Barbara Bossert
Helena Carroll
Cherry Davis
Jack Davison
Dortha Duckworth
Eugene Endon
Bryant Fraser
Randy Gaynes
James Glenn
Bobby Gold
Lesley Hunt
John M Kimbro
Michael Lamont
Allan Lokos
Terry Lomax
Sal Lombardo
Dodie Marshall
Ruth Maynard
Richard Miller
Christopher Month
Patrick O Shaughnessy
Alan Paul
Barry Pearl
George Priolo
Ruth Ramsey
Robbie Reed
Nina Reiter
Ray Tudor
Maura K Wedge
Judy Bruce
Ronnie Kroll
Linda Barrie
Bobbie Bradley
Lucille Cole
Stuart Getz
Paul Kroll
Ronald Kroll
Bart Larsen
Joan Lombardo
Blaise Morton
Jeffrey Neal
Paul O Keefe
Jackie Perkuhn
Robin Ramsay
Michael Roberts
Terry Robinson
Howard Ross
Malcolm Taylor
Ann Tell
Gregg Weir
Jimmy Merrill
Victor Stiles

11 of these 66 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 55 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Creative team

Director

Peter Cole

Producer

David Merrick & Donald Albery

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Tony Awards 0 from 1 nomination

Recordings 24 held for the work

None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Oliver!, and nothing says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.

Around this production

• Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! is also about a young orphan who escapes a life of deprivation by being adopted by a wealthy gentleman. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 240
• Oliver! ran 774 performances. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 404
• Producer David Merrick knew he was in trouble with his transfer of the London hit Oliver! He had the smarts to keep the show in an extended West Coast tryout (which put the production in the black!) and to record the original cast album prior to New York and plant the songs on the airwaves. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 174
• A 1984 Broadway revival of Oliver! (starring movie Fagin Ron Moody and Patti LuPone) and a softened, retooled 1987 revival of Follies in the West End were rare missteps. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 271
• Earlier British shows that made it on Broadway included The Boy Friend (1954) and Oliver! (1963), but many believed that the true “invasion” came with the shows with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 41

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

• No photograph of this staging.
• No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
• Which of the 24 recordings of Oliver! document this run, if any.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.