Oliver!
Shows · Oliver!
Lionel Bart’s Oliver !, which opened in London in 1960, held the West End long-run record for a musical until overtaken by Jesus Christ Superstar , and its Broadway facsimile — also directed by Peter Cole and designed by Sean Kenny — was the longest running musical import until overtaken by Evita.
- Opened
- 1963
- Performances
- 774
- Type
- Musical
- Era
- Golden Age
Productions4 on Broadway
| 1963 | Imperial Theatre Original. January 6, 1963 · Peter Cole | 774 performances |
| 1965 | Martin Beck Theatre Return-Engagement. August 2, 1965 · Peter Coe | 64 performances |
| 1984 | Mark Hellinger Theatre Revival. April 29, 1984 · Peter Coe | 17 performances |
| 1994 | London Palladium Original. |
Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.
Recordings 24 albums held
Licensing 1 entry
| US | Music Theatre International Oliver! matched on title alone: a lead, not a confirmed licensor |
Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.
43 passages naming Oliver!, found by keyword across 178 books. It's where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.
Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! is also about a young orphan who escapes a life of deprivation by being adopted by a wealthy gentleman. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-seventh-edition-stanley-green-cary-ginell#p240
Oliver! ran 774 performances. book:broadway-its-history-people-and-places-an-encyclopedia-bloom-ken-1949-2nd-ed-new#p404
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. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p174
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. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p271
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. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p41
He also produced the Broadway revivals of Oliver! (1984) and Carousel (1994), both of which originated in London. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p244
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