Oliver!

Oliver! is an English musical, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

It premiered in the West End in 1960, enjoying a long run, and successful long runs on Broadway, tours and revivals, after being brought to the US by producer David Merrick in 1963. It was made into a musical film in 1968. Major London revivals played from 1977–80, 1994–98, 2008–11 and on tour in the UK from 2011-13.

Background

Oliver! was the first musical adaptation of a famous Charles Dickens work to become a stage hit. There had been two previous Dickens musicals in the 1950s, both of them television adaptations of A Christmas Carol. The plot of Dickens' original novel is considerably simplified for the purposes of the musical, with Fagin being represented more as a comic character than as a villain, and large portions of the latter part of the story being completely left out. (It may well be that Bart based his musical on David Lean's film, rather than Dickens' book.) Although Dickens' novel has been called antisemitic in its portrayal of the Jew Fagin as evil, the production by Bart (himself a Jew) was more sympathetic and featured many Jewish actors in leading roles: Ron Moody (Ronald Moodnik), Georgia Brown (Lilian Klot), and Martin Horsey.

Oliver

Oliver is a given name. It is also used as a surname (see Oliver (surname)), in particular of a Scottish sept (see Oliver (Scottish surname)).

It may also refer to:

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Culture

Film

Oliver! (song)

Oliver! is the title song from the 1960s original West End and Broadway musical Oliver! and the 1968 film of the same name.

Background

The song begins with the workhouse boys and Mr. Bumble praying for the food they will receive and for a blessing of thankfulness. However, Oliver asks for more gruel and that makes Mr. Bumble and the Widow Corney very angry at him and they think of ways to punish him for his ingratitude and ask who he is. The punishment that Oliver is to receive, as stated in the song is that he is to be sent down a stairway without a bannister and to be fed cockroaches served in a canister or they would push Oliver up a chimney full of soot. Even the Board of Governors is stunned by Oliver's ingratitude and join in the song (but only in the West End productions). The punishment that the Board of Governors suggest is that Oliver should be imprisoned and put up for sale for apprenticeship, though their lyrics are cut from the Broadway version.

Oliver (song)

"Oliver" was the Norwegian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979, performed in Norwegian by Anita Skorgan. This was Skorgan's second participation in the Contest; in 1977 she had placed 14th out of 18 entries with "Casanova".

The song is a moderately up-tempo number, with Skorgan addressing a former lover (with whom she sings she broke up four weeks ago) who she sees in a disco. She tells him that if she happens to walk past him, she will ask him for a dance, because she believes that he misses her and she is prepared to give him another chance. English ("Oliver"), German ("(Tanz mit mir) Oliver"), French ("Il faut danser") and Swedish ("Oliver") versions of the song were also released after the Contest.

The song was performed sixteenth on the night, following Sweden's Ted Gärdestad with "Satellit" and preceding the United Kingdom's Black Lace with "Mary Ann". At the close of voting, it had received 57 points, placing 11th in a field of 19.

It was succeeded as Norwegian representative at the 1980 contest by Sverre Kjelsberg & Mattis Hætta with "Sámiid Ædnan". Anita Skorgan returned to the Contest in 1982 with her then husband Jahn Teigen with the duet "Adieu".

Oliver (Middlesex cricketer)

Oliver (first name and dates unknown) was an English first-class cricketer who made one appearance for Middlesex in 1787, scoring one run. Oliver played for Middlesex against Essex on 31 May 1787 at Lord's Old Ground, Middlesex winning by 93 runs in the second match known to have been played on the ground after it opened earlier in May.

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Oliver (given name)

Oliver is a masculine given name of Old French origin; Oliver is one of Charlemagne's retainers in the 11th-century Song of Roland.

The name was generally associated with the Latin term/name olivarius "olive tree planter", but may have been connected with the Germanic names *wulfa- "wolf" and *χarja- "army", or the Old Norse Óleifr (Ólaf); or a genuinely West Germanic name, perhaps from ala- "all" and wēra "true", or from alf "elf" and hari "army, warrior" (in both cases possibly cognate with Álvaro).

Modern variants include French Olivier, Hungarian Olivér, Irish Oilivéar, Scottish Gaelic Oilvreis, Italian Oliviero, Spanish Oliverio.

The name was introduced to England by the Normans. It was commonly used in medieval England, but became rare after the Restoration, because of the unpopularity of Oliver Cromwell. The name was revived in the 19th century, possibly inspired by the title character of Dickens' Oliver Twist (1838). Pet forms of the English given name include Ollie and Noll.