Maryville College Theatre prepares popular Broadway musical ‘Oliver!’ for the Clayton Center stage
March 21, 2024
For the artistically minded, the brain’s internal radio station has a tendency to get stuck on show tunes, something that Maryville College’s Andy Vaught often experiences.
It was one such tune — “Who Will Buy?” — that inspired the College’s visiting lecturer of theater to mount “Oliver!,” a beloved stage musical based on Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” that will serve as the MC Theatre Department’s April return to the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre stage of the Clayton Center for the Arts.
“Having a new son and walking around, pushing him in his stroller, I kept hearing that song,” Vaught said. “I kept thinking of that sense of joy that comes from this idea of young people and innocence, and then I started tying that into the students we have here. Maryville College is very unique because it’s in many ways a place where students who are not welcome in other parts of the state can come and find a home.
“And then I started to think about the famous line in the show, ‘I want some more,’ and in a sense, that’s something we can all relate to. We want more food, more house, more justice, more joy. The students here want more out of life. We have extremely talented students here, and they have extreme talent to play beyond their ages and life experiences.”
A community production
“Oliver!,” which debuted in London in 1960, enjoyed a record-breaking run on Broadway after arriving in America in 1963, and the 1968 film adaptation won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Based on the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens, it tells the story of Oliver Twist, an orphan raised in a workhouse who runs away to London, joins a gang of juvenile criminals led by the villainous Fagin and eventually reconnects with long-lost family members. While exploring the harsh nature of 19th century street life for the urban homeless, it’s also something of a fairy tale, in that the title character remains a symbol of hope and optimism, eventually earning a happily-ever-after ending.
“One of the challenges — and there are many in ‘Oliver!,’ as there are, I think, in every musical — is that the source material itself is rooted in the time, and any attempt to sort of take that out is tricky,” he said. “It’s an extremely funny musical with starving children; a very catchy song about human trafficking (“Boy for Sale”); and a group of grotesque gleeful villains,” Vaught said. “I mean, the character of Nancy (played by Jenny Ribble ’27) has the torch song of the show (“As Long As He Needs Me”) about not leaving an abusive relationship.
“Even though it’s a silly musical, and I can’t say there won’t be some Cockney accents, we’re dealing with some very adult themes, but that’s what we’ve asked of these students in previous plays like ‘Trifles’ and ‘The Laramie Project.’ They’re taking a hard look at people stuck in situations and lives of desperation and trying to find the humanity there.”
Like “The Laramie Project,” produced last fall, “Oliver!” will be staged with the assistance of members of the community. This time, MC Theatre is partnering with Maryville-based children’s theater company Broadway Center for the Arts, which will provide numerous child actors to populate the workhouse and Fagin’s band of criminals. Doing so serves a twofold purpose, Vaught said: It encourages members of the community to be a part of the production, and it develops stronger bonds between a forward-facing College organization that’s doing its part to be of and for the region.
“It’s a grand musical that a lot of people know, and it allows us to consider some of the societal issues that East Tennessee is dealing with,” Vaught said. “One thing I’m really grateful for is that we had a little bit of a dry run with ‘Laramie Project,’ in that we had so many people — students, faculty, staff and community members — on stage. So we’ve been playing with this idea of bringing as many interesting partners on stage as we can bring. It’s all about logistics, and understanding where things go before they need to go there.”
In addition to guest actors, Theatre students are working closely with Art Professor Dr. Carl Gombert, who retires at the end of the 2023-24 academic year and is bringing his talents to bear on collaborating with Technical Director Kevin Grigsby ’05 for the set design. Utilizing the resources at hand, Vaught said, gives students a more experiential learning experience, and makes every MC production a more organic one.
“We’ve been planning this pretty much since we got back from the Christmas break, and we’re operating off of the efficiency pyramid, which tells us there are three ways to do a job — good, fast and cheap, and you can only succeed in two of them,” Vaught said. “We can do good and cheap, so we’ve had to give ourselves time and use the terrain, so to speak, to our advantage. I’ve done a lot of work in delis, parks, prisons and things like that, so having (the Nutt Theatre) to play with is exciting. It makes me excited to use it and figure out how to do so as part of the show.”
With a host of students, community partners and the occasional faculty and staff member helping shepherd the production along, it allows Vaught to focus on work with students like Elaina Wilson ’24, a graduating senior who will act and sing the title role.
“Because ‘Oliver!’ is my last show as an MC student, I knew I was going to audition,” Wilson said. “I figured I’d be some sort of orphan boy, but I didn’t know I’d be the orphan boy! I was very excited, because I am getting to play such an iconic role with so many wonderful friends of mine.
“Getting to play the title character of a show as big as this one will be feels like the perfect way to end my MC Theatre career. I’m a member of the Maryville College Concert Choir, Off Kilter and Lassies, as well as a Bonner Scholar. All of these things have shaped my experience at Maryville College and taught me that hard work does not go unnoticed, nor should it. I am so honored to be even a small part of all of them.”
A Place to Stay partnership
Another community partnership that’s an outgrowth of work begun last semester: A Place to Stay, the nonprofit organization that compiles and combines resources that assist individuals experiencing homelessness. The hardships of street life depicted in the musical, Vaught said, make the alliance an ideal one, and A Place to Stay volunteers will man information booths, as well as serve as recipients of all proceeds from ticket sales on opening night.
“Productions like this allow us to consider some of the societal issues that East Tennessee is dealing with, and A Place to Stay fits seamlessly as an organization doing good work in what we’re talking about,” he said. “Partnering with a like-minded organization that’s trying to do good is what we’re about. Through working with a children’s organization in the community, and organizing public performances at the Blount County Public Library and on the WDVX-FM ‘Blue Plate Special,’ all of these students are going to be pushing themselves to make that happen.
“We’re asking a lot, just like we do with every production and at this school, but they’ll be ready. And the public, we hope, will come have a good time, because this is a standard of Broadway with something for everybody, from your grandma to your emo teenage son.”
“Oliver!” will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 18-20, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 21 in the Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center, located on the MC campus. Tickets are $20 for the public; $15 for students, seniors and MC Theatre alumni; and free for MC students, faculty and staff who obtain a ticket reservation from the Clayton Center Box Office.
The cast will perform excerpts from the musical at 6 p.m. April 2 at the Blount County Public Library in Maryville, and at noon April 8 on the WDVX-FM “Blue Plate Special,” broadcast live from the Knoxville Visitors Center at 301 S. Gay St. in downtown Knoxville. Both events are free to attend.
For more information, call the box office at 865-981-8590.