Editing Oliver! (section)

==Background==
''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's 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's novel has been called [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] in its portrayal of the Jewish Fagin as evil, the production by Bart (himself Jewish) was more sympathetic and featured many Jewish actors in leading roles: [[Ron Moody]] (Ronald Moodnick), [[Georgia Brown (English singer)|Georgia Brown]] (Lilian Klot), and Martin Horsey.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dickens Adapted|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|editor=John Glavin|isbn=978-1351944564}}</ref>