Oliver Twist

About the show

Oliver Twist is a 1905 dramatic adaptation by J. Comyns Carr from part of the 1838 novel by Charles Dickens. The five-act play with ten scenes was commissioned by Herbert Beerbohm Tree who wished to play Fagin, so the playwright built the work around that character. The play was first tried out in London's West End, for a single performance in July 1905. It had a more formal premiere in September. The production starred Tree, with Constance Collier and Lyn Harding in support. It ran through mid-December 1905. The London Oliver Twist was still going when F. F. Proctor produced the J. Comyns Carr version in New York, starring J. E. Dodson, with Amelia Bingham, and Hardee Kirkland. It made its Broadway premiere in November 1905 and closed after three weeks. The J. Comyns Carr version of Oliver Twist had a more successful Broadway revival in February 1912, which starred Nat C. Goodwin, with Constance Collier, Lyn Harding, and Marie Doro, and ran through to May 1912.