Local Young Actors to Lead OLIVER! at Crucible, 29 Nov. - 25 Jan 2014

Sheffield Theatres announces today the four local boys set to play Oliver and the Artful Dodger in the company's Christmas musical, Lionel Bart's multi award-winning masterpiece Oliver!, which will take to the Crucible stage from Friday 29 November 2013 to Saturday 25 January 2014.

Samual Bailey (age 12) and Jack Skilbeck Dunn (age 11) will share the lead role of Oliver Twist and Jack Armstrong (age 13) and Travis Caddy (age 14) will play cheeky Cockney pickpocket the Artful Dodger. The boys were selected from open auditions held by Sheffield Theatres in June and will begin rehearsals, alongside Phil Davis (Whitechapel and Quadrophenia) who plays Fagin, and the rest of the company, in October.

Based on the children's novel by Charles Dickens, Oliver! follows the story of an orphan who runs away from a workhouse and falls in with a gang of boys trained to be pickpockets by gang leader, Fagin, and includes well-known songs such as Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, and Where Is Love. This new staging will be directed by Artistic Director Daniel Evans and will be his third musical for the company, following critically-acclaimed productions of My Fair Lady and This Is My Family.

Oliver! will take to the Crucible stage from Friday 29 November 2013 to Saturday 25 January 2014. Tickets are priced from £17.00 - £32.00*, with discounts available, and can be purchased by calling the Box Office on 0114 249 6000 or by visiting sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.