Twist: Dickens purists should find very little to complain about in Gila Sand's Twist, a sort of rock-n-roll, vaudevillian, burlesque, S&M reimagining of Oliver Twist. Sure, Oliver's erudite saviour Mr. Brownlow is replaced by Mrs. Downlow, a female foot fetishist and yes, Sand's Fagin is a vampy, tranny dom with a passion for silk scarves instead of a sour old villain with a penchant for pocket watches, but the plethora of corsets and lacy underthings aside, as faithfulness to the source text goes, Twist is more or less right on the money. (And let's face it, as much as that orphan is battered, bruised and beatdown, isn't it almost better if he enjoys it a bit?)

Alas, stringently faithful as this charming tale of a young boy finding his place in the world (and London's S&M community) may be, the production itself was a sort of hodge-podge of good and bad. There were some distracting technical issues including sound design problems (particularly troublesome in a musical) and blocking that may have made good use of available space, but not of the audience sight lines. (One expects perhaps somewhat of an obstructed view when seated in the back row - but less so when the back row is also only the 3rd row; and several times I had to crane to just catch a mere glimpse of the hot fictional-Victorian-icon on fictional-Victorian-icon action.) There was some uneven pacing, at least one of the chorus actors seemed to have based his/her character on those found in Monty Python sketches, and (forgive me now, as I was unable to locate hide nor hair of a cast list, so I must needs refer to the cast by their character names rather than their actual names) Master Bates, although an excellent juggler, was an unenthusiastic street urchin.

Then again, as one of the only characters who didn't seem to get any action, who can blame her?

On the plus side, the music is catchy, the lyrics are witty, and there were some real stand-out performances in the cast. Mr. Bumble was an imposing work master (even without the benefit of his stilts, and might I add that he was one of two characters in the show to wear them - and in the not especially high-ceilinged Adrienne, mind you), and the insidious Bill Sikes, although he and Nancy are somewhat marginalized in this production, was particularly disturbing and cruel. This was a somewhat - I hesitate to say "pleasant," but indeed happy - surprise, as the same actor plays a variety of likable/nonthreatening roles earlier in the play. You can dress Fagin however you'd like, but a likable Bill Sikes never would do.

Speaking of which, this show really belongs to Fagin and his partner in crime (and other things), the Artful Dodger. The play really became interesting when their den of iniquity was introduced; I almost wished they'd skipped past the prologue and began with Dodger and Oliver's introduction. This Fagin is a cold, calculating, glam fabulous bitch who constantly looked as though she could eat any man or woman alive (and make them like it). And as for Jack "The Artful Dodger" Dawkins - let me say this: I've had a bit of a thing for Dickens' Artful Dodger almost my whole life. He's charming, personable, street smart and more than a little trouble (it's a bad boy thing, I know it); and the big blue-eyed, candy-crunching, lollipop-licking pickpocket this production put forth has done nothing to dissuade my school-girl crush. In fact, it has given it a whole new dimension that will make Oliver Twist a much more distracting read for me in the future.

Swaying hips and pouty lips aside, the Fagin/Dodger/Twist triangle adds a real emotional resonance to Twist, which the ribald play otherwise lacks. Their caricatures may be played for laughs, but there's a real investment made in those characters and the performance thereof, which thankfully makes the play more than a running string of innuendo, whippings, rollicking rock numbers and kinks (which are all good things in moderation, mind, but I'm one of those pesky people who likes a good story, too).

When introducing the show, Sands was quick to interject that this production is still a work-in-progress, which is evident. There's a lot of potential to the show, though. I'd love to see it again in about six months, in an appropriately-sized theater (maybe one of the old vaudeville houses if they can still find one), with better sound design, and all the...er...kinks - pacing and otherwise - well worked out.

Festival rating: Fair to Good

Oh - and a note to all you musically based Fringe performances: you might want to consider selling CDs at your shows. As I understand it, one can do such things quite cheaply on a home computer these days. Once again, there were a few songs I would have liked to have taken home, but sadly and alas, along with no cast list, there were no cds.