OLIVE COPPERBOTTOM: A NEW MUSICAL by Charles Dickens and Penny Ashton (Penash Productions). At the Al Green Theatre. July 10 at 2:45 pm, July 11 at 4:30 pm, July 13 at 5:15 pm, July 14 at 8 pm, July 15 at 1:45 pm. See listing. Rating: NNN
You dont have to know the works of Charles Dickens to appreciate Olive Copperbottom, Penny Ashtons clever, if exhausting, mashup of circuitous plots, wacky characters and uncanny coincidences that would have made the prolific Victorian author happy, since he was a big fan of the stage himself.
Ashton plays dozens of characters in a story about an orphan with a secret locket (like Oliver Twist) who runs away from the orphanage to join a theatre company (like Nicholas Nickleby) and is pursued across England by two men (too many to mention).
No director is credited, which explains the length and lack of intriguing staging and lighting. But Ashton is a delightfully nimble and talented performer. Apart from bringing all the roles to life (a smackdown between Olive and the evil Mrs. Sourtart is a highlight), she also belts out a series of songs sung with new lyrics to melodies by Verdi, Chopin et al.
