Dickensblog

Rehearsal footage from Encores' 'Oliver!'

Playbill's YouTube channel has shared rehearsal clips of "Where Is Love?" and "Consider Yourself" from the upcoming New York City Center production, embedded below. And BroadwayWorld has photos from the rehearsal. The cast, led by Benjamin Pajak as Oliver and Julian Lerner as the Artful Dodger, looks great, and I envy you lucky people who get to see this onstage!

 

Casting announced for Encores' 'Oliver!'

The upcoming Encores! production, which will run May 3-14 at New York City Center, will star Lilli Cooper as Nancy, Raúl Esparza as Fagin, Tam Mutu as Bill Sikes, Brad Oscar as Mr. Bumble, Benjamin Pajak as Oliver Twist, and Mary Testa as Widow Corney. More information on the production and on where to purchase tickets is available here. Thanks to Rachel McMillan for the tip!

'Shadow Chasers' to feature Dickens and his characters

In the adventure film Shadow Chasers, to be shot in Australia this fall, a young Charles Dickens will join forces with Oliver Twist, Scrooge, and Marley "to save Old London from imminent destruction." George Mahaffey (Chief of Station) wrote the script, and Luke Sparke (Occupation) will direct. Deadline Hollywood has the details!

'Dickens and Prince': A review

Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius by Nick Hornby (Riverhead Books, 2022).

What do a 19th-century Victorian novelist and a 20th-century rock star have in common? More than you might expect, according to award-winning author Nick Hornby, who's devoted an entire book to the unlikely pair. 

The impetus for the book came from the 2020 release of a commemorative boxed set of Prince's 1987 album Sign o' the Times. This release -- which included a whopping 63 songs that hadn't originally made the cut -- got Hornby thinking: "Who else ever produced this much? Who else ever worked that way? It was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but then I realized there was an answer: Dickens. Dickens did. Dickens worked that way."

'Oliver Twist' audio drama released

Sam Mendes's new audio drama Oliver Twist is now available on Audible, and if you have a membership, it's free! The cast includes Brian Cox as Fagin, Daniel Kaluuya as Bill Sikes, Nicola Coughlan as Nancy, Emilio Villa Muhammad as Oliver, and Elijah Wolf as the Artful Dodger. Go here to read more about the production, which includes sound effects recorded at Dickens's own home, now the Dickens Museum. And go here to listen!

Mendes to produce Dickens audio dramas

Acclaimed film and theater director Sam Mendes will produce three Dickens audio drama adaptations for Audible. First up will be Oliver Twist, due in November 2022; the other two titles have not yet been announced. The actors haven't yet been announced either, but all the adaptations will have "all-star" casts. I'll post more news when it comes out!

'Oliver!' comes to New York

Lionel Bart's beloved musical version of Oliver Twist will have a week-and-a-half run in May 2023 as part of New York City Center's Encores! season. Go here and here for more information.

Return of the Dodger

Of the making of Oliver Twist adaptations, there is no end! The newest is The Artful Dodger, to be filmed in Australia for Disney+. The eight-episode series "picks up the story of Jack Dawkins 15 years after the events of Oliver Twist, with the former pickpocket now a surgeon with a lingering taste for crime in Australia."

TCM alert

Oliver! (1968) airs on the channel today at 5:15 p.m. Eastern.

From the book pile

• Dear Mr. Dickens by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe (Albert Whitman & Company, 2021).
  
  The heroine of this children's picture book is Eliza Davis, the Jewish woman who famously confronted Charles Dickens over his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist. Author Nancy Churnin tells Davis's story simply but with sensitivity and insight. She explains how the anti-Semitic descriptions of the character hurt Davis all the more because they were coming from a great author that she loved, and how this spurred her to take action. And she helps young readers understand how this story might apply to their lives: "Think of someone famous you admire. What would you do if that person said or wrote something unfair? Would you speak up? Would you risk getting that person angry?" 
  
  Churnin's portrayal of Dickens is unflinchingly honest, showing that his reaction to Davis initially was sharp and defensive. But the book also shows how, as Davis kept up the pressure on him, he came to understand and appreciate her point of view and changed his work accordingly. It makes the point that the two of them had a genuine concern for the needy in common, and that it was Davis's challenging him to live up to his own high standards that made the difference.
  
  I learned a lot from this book I didn't know (I hadn't realized that there had been more than one exchange of letters between Davis and Dickens), not just from the story itself, but also from the comprehensive Author's Note at the back. This children's book is the fullest and best account of the incident I've ever seen, enhanced by Bethany Stancliffe's lively and touching illustrations, and I recommend it highly.