I went along last night for Omid's first night and thought he did very well, although you could tell he was very nervous.
I've seen the show twice now, first with Rowan and yesterday with Omid and they both bring something very different to the role of Fagin and are funny in their own ways.
He acted the role brilliantly and was also quite villianous which the role always needs.
I loved his 'Pick A Pocket Or Two', especially the ending of the song where his lost note of 'Boooyyysss' turned into his famous Arabic singing and shouting. The audience loved it and It was very very funny. His worst song was 'Be Back Soon', he hardly sang the right tune to the song and whispered and talked his way through it - I was very dissapointed as I love that song. Once again 'Reviewing The Situation' stole the show and he brought something different to the role, choreographey changed to Rowan etc and they were both funny. His arabic/camp dancing to the violen in 'RTS' was PRICELESS! Some jokes have changed from Rowan and both comedians try their own thing on the stage which is refreshing too see.
Overall I think he done well, he was nervous and you could tell and it was his first night so he was trying out new jokes to see how they went with the audience. The role of Fagin really does liven up the show, I find it all dire and tedious untill Dodger, Fagin and Nancy show up.
Jodie was fantastic once again, as was Francessco as Oliver and Dodger was much better this time round.
Biggest dissapointment was us being told Omid would come out after the after show party. We waited till 12.30am (my brother is a big fan
) outside, there was only four of us. We were told he was coming round at stage door, we made our way there to be told he was coming out front, so we went round front. No sight of him. Made our way back to stage door where we were told that Omid had already taken his bike and gone, (also note we were told he was there with his wife and family at the party so how they all got on his one bike is beyond me
). So we sat outside rather pissed off to be honest, when some more crew came out and asked us what we were doing and they had said he left half an hour ago (they were lovely and seemed quite angry that we had been told to wait around
). Plus side is, Jodie was an absolute star at stage door (once again) she popped out for five minutes had a chat then went back to the party, and we met Cameron MacIntosh who was also adorable.
Still apart from that, it was an enjoyable show (still needs some cutting down especially the Bumble/Corney scenes) and was alot of fun.
I can't really judge it being Omid's first night as he still needs to settle but Rowan was overall the much better Fagin.
Oliver! With Omid Djalili
Jul 21 2009, 09:46 AM
