Oliver! Oliver! is a British musical, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 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. Major London revivals played from 1977–1980, 1994–1998, 2008–2011 and on tour in the UK from 2011–2013. Additionally, its 1968 film adaptation, directed by Carol Reed, was highly successful, winning six Academy Awards including Best Picture. "Oliver!" received thousands of performances in British schools, becoming one of the most popular school musicals. In 1963 Lionel Bart received the Tony Award for Best Original Score. Many songs are well known to the public. "Oliver!" was one of eight UK musicals featured on Royal Mail stamps, issued in February 2011. "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. 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 Moodnick), Georgia Brown (Lilian Klot), and Martin Horsey. The musical opens in the workhouse, as the half-starved orphan boys are entering the enormous dining room for dinner. They are fed only gruel, but find some solace by imagining a richer menu ("Food Glorious Food"). Oliver gathers up the courage to ask for more. He is immediately apprehended and is told to gather his belongings by Mr. Bumble and the Widow Corney, the heartless and greedy caretakers of the workhouse ("Oliver!"). Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney are left alone, and Mr. Bumble begins to make amorous advances. Corney pretends to resent his attentions, but ends up on Mr. Bumble's lap, as he eventually proposes to her ("I Shall Scream!"). Mr. Bumble then takes Oliver and sells him as an apprentice to an undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry ("Boy for Sale").