Masterpiece Theater just had a production of "Oliver Twist". I'd never seen a straight out drama of this story before. It's really quite tragic. Oliver and his family (except his dead parents and his grown half-brother who wants him dead) have a happy ending. The rest, well, Bill murders Nancy, Nancy haunts Bill until he hangs himself, Fagan is convicted of theft and sentenced to hang. He's given the opportunity to live...if only he'll convert to Christianity. He chooses the noose. The Artful Dodger lives, with the terrible foreshadowing that he'll grow up to be just like Bill.
It made me wonder, who the heck ever thought THAT would make a fun musical?
But then I thought about other musicals I like. All tragic. Every last one of them. Who the heck ever thought that the Austrian Anschluss, gang warfare, or ethnic cleansing would make for fun musicals?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment