Oliver! Reviews: What the Critics Say

The critics saw this production at the Gielgud in December 2024, after it transferred from Chichester. Five-star notices came from the Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Standard, WhatsOnStage and the Daily Express.

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The Critics' Verdict

Five stars was the commonest verdict, and nothing anywhere went below three.

That is a narrow spread for a show this size, and it points at something specific: the disagreement is not about whether the production is good. It is about how dark a story of child poverty and a violent death ought to be played.

Dominic Cavendish of the Telegraph reviewed it twice. He gave Chichester four stars and the West End five, and the reason was the building rather than the cast: the staging "fits more snugly into the Gielgud than it did on the Chichester thrust-stage last summer."

What the Reviews Praised

Matthew Bourne's staging and choreography, first and almost unanimously. Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times: "as polished as the jewels he secretly stashes beneath the floor, this gorgeous staging of Oliver! oozes class as it high-kicks its way into the West End." Sarah Crompton in WhatsOnStage: "The entire production teems with life, commitment and panache. It's a richly realised triumph."

That it is darker than the Oliver! most people remember, without losing the comedy. Nick Curtis in the Standard called it "a more intimate version that evokes the spirit of the 1960 premiere but also treats the story's trickier aspects with finesse and delicacy." Cavendish was careful about it: "I shouldn't oversell the idea that this is an 'Oliver!' spattered with grit. The comedy remains intact."

Aaron Sidwell's Bill Sikes, repeatedly, as where the darkness actually lives. Hemming: "genuinely frightening: a brutal, brutalised man who brings a chill to any room he enters and whom other characters treat as an unexploded bomb." Curtis, more briefly: "Aaron Sidwell, scary."

The score, which nobody argued about. Neil Norman in the Daily Express: "If Dickens provided the structure and the characters, the songs are entirely Bart's and his strike rate is phenomenal; every number is a hit." Even the least enthusiastic notice stopped to say the songs are exquisite.

The detail, which several noticed independently. Curtis: "Look away from the main action: no one in the background is busking it or marking time."

Where Reviews Were Mixed

The objection, where there was one, was always the same: not dangerous enough.

The Guardian, on three stars, put it in the headline: "Divine yet danger-averse revival could be renamed Fagin!" Perfect singing and cute choreography, in that reading, but too little daring, and one performance stealing the show.

Curtis raised a smaller version of it even while giving five stars: "A tiny voice inside me wanted slightly less cockney jollity, but this is Dickens and Bart, so what are you gonna do?"

And Cavendish had a reservation nobody else shared, about the leading performance rather than the production: "I still have the odd reservation about Simon Lipkin's lustily buccaneering Fagin, and perhaps Aaron Sidwell's Sikes could growl more." He gave it five stars regardless.

Is Oliver! Right for You?

Based on what the reviews actually say:

Book it if you want the songs done properly. No critic dissented on the score or on the way it is played, and the orchestrations here are stripped back for a smaller band, which several of them singled out as a gain rather than a loss.

Book it if you saw the last big London Oliver! and assume you know this one. The reviews are consistent that it is smaller, darker and differently shaped (and dare we say, better).

Book it for a family with children of about seven and up. The guidance is 7+, and what the critics call frightening about Sikes is a real thing rather than a marketing line.

Think harder if you want Dickens with the lid fully off. The three-star notices all wanted more, and they wanted the same more.

One practical warning. The reviews were written at press night. Nancy and the Artful Dodger have both been recast since, so what the critics say about those two performances is no longer a description of what you will see. Everything they say about the staging still applies.

Call us on 020 7193 9050 if you are weighing it up and we will talk it through honestly.

Book Oliver! Tickets

Booking to 14 March 2027, with tickets from around £25 and a clear-view seat at around £100. Family tickets run on midweek evenings.

The price we quote is the price you pay.

Oliver! tickets • Call us on 020 7193 9050

Sources

The Telegraph · The Financial Times · The Standard · WhatsOnStage · Daily Express · The Times · The Observer · The Sunday Times · The Stage · Time Out · The i Paper · Daily Mail · The Guardian · The Arts Dispatch · Portsmouth News · West Sussex Gazette