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Show Fagin and Nancy steal show in 'Oliver' By MARCELLA WALKER If you enjoy the music from "Oliver" and the intimacy of a community theater, you'll enjoy the production now being presented at the Alhambra Theater in Pleasant Grove. Directed by C. Michael Perry and produced by Cathy Johnston, the play will run until Dec. 17 with performances on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Perhaps not the liveliest production that the Alhambra has presented, this musical show does have its high points. The performances of Fagin, played by James Lyon, and Nancy, played by Marchele Duncan, are something special. Even in the movie version, Fagin is the character who steals the show. This is the case here, too. Marchelle as Nancy does not only a good job of acting but has the best singing voice in the entire cast. Ryan Nelson was Oliver on the night we attended the play. He also .did a good job and has a beautiful voice. We hope he doesn't lose it when his voice changes. Also enjoyable was Keith Christeson as Mr. Bumble, Mike Wilson as the Artful Dodger and Annmarie Hair as Bet. The extension to the front center of the stage was a great innovation. This feature made it seem that the characters using it were right out into the audience and gave a very personal touch to the production. Of disappointment, however, was the sound, again. It seems that on many of the Alhambra productions the background music is so loud that the words of the singers cannot be distinguished clearly. It would perhaps be a good idea to turn the taped accompaniment down for this reason. The Alhambra productions usually turn out some good dance numbers and this was no exception. The noise of changing scenes was horrendous in this production and maybe it couldn't be helped because of the large pieces and risers being moved, but it was distracting and almost amusing to the audience sitting in darkness listening to the -booms and crashes. The enjoyable music of "Oliver" is worth a trip to the theater to see this production as are the performances per-formances of Fagin and Nancy and some of the other characters. |