‘Oliver!’ closes season at Salem theater

Staff report

SALEM

Salem Community Theater will close its season with “Oliver!,” running for three weekends beginning Friday.

This musical features a cast of more than 20 young actors and 25 adults. It is being directed by Mark Frost, with musical direction by Allison DePanicis. Joanna Andrei is choreographer and assistant director.

Friday’s show will mark the first time the new 7:30 p.m. curtain will be in effect, instead of the previous 8 p.m.

“The public has made it known that it prefers an earlier start time, so we are beginning that now, and will continue that format into our next and subsequent seasons as well,” said Gary Kekel, executive director of the theater.

“Oliver!,” the stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist,” follows the adventures of the boy Oliver, played by Micah Stevens of Boardman, as he escapes a workhouse of orphans run by the mean Mr. Bumble (Michael Dempsey). Oliver is befriended by the Artful Dodger (Ben Morgan of Poland). Oliver takes up with a group of pickpockets overseen by the kind but sinister Fagin, portrayed by David Bedell of Salem.

Also in the cast are Jackie Stevens, Abbie Cull, Tom Hathhorn and Christopher Hager.

“Oliver!” includes the songs “Where is Love,” “Consider Yourself,” “I’ll Do Anything” and “As Long As He Needs Me.” The Broadway productions won numerous Tony Awards in 1963 (and revivals in 1984 and 1994), including Best Musical.

Salem’s production will feature a two-story set, designed and constructed by Frost, containing multipurpose moving stairs and doorways, and adapting to the various indoor and outdoor scenes.

As has become common for SCT’s large-cast musicals, there are many families that have multiple members involved in this production: Ruth Newman and her son, Mike; Brian Whitehill and his children Paige and David; siblings Annabelle and Sherlyn Himes; sisters Kate and Haley Dees; Dalton and Darian Sharp; Lori George and her children Cecelia and Johnny; husband and wife David and Ally DePanicis; Vicki Rossi and her granddaughter Olivia; and even director Frost’s daughter, Alison, and 3-year-old granddaughter, Paige Hoskinson, in her first stage performance.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Aug. 15. There will be one matinee, at 2 p.m. Aug. 16. For advance tickets, call the box office at 330-332-9688.