History YMMV / Oliver

** Averted hard with the opening song of the Second Act: "Oom-Pah-Pah". It doesn't seem to have much impact on the story at first; it's a rowdy drinking song that Nancy leads at the Three Cripples pub. However, [[TropesAreNotBad this is purely to get the audience to let down their guard]] because right after the song finishes, Bill Sikes makes his dramatic entrance with "My Name". It's effectively the moment of relief that comes before the JumpScare.

* ToughActToFollow: The Musical was Lionel Bart's biggest hit alas, everything else he did wasn't. His other musicals that opened post-Oliver didn't have the same hype, Blitz! and Maggie May being modest at best but too British to do Broadway. Then Twang!! was an utter disaster, with Bart too drugged up to help. Also, nothing seemed to work and La Strada closed on its opening night on Broadway with Bart unwilling to travel to the States and most of his songs deleted. Bart ended up bankrupt pumping money into the last two and sold the rights to Oliver and his other works.

* ToughActToFollow: The Musical was Lionel Bart's biggest hit alas, everything else he did wasn't. His other musicals that opened post-Oliver didn't have the same hype, Blitz! and Maggie May being modest at best but too British to do Broadway. Then Twang!! was an utter disaster, with Bart too drugged up to help and La Strada closing on its opening night on Broadway. Bart ended up bankrupt and sold the rights to Oliver and his other works.

* NightmareFuel:

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments:
** Nancy's terrific ReasonYouSuckSpeech to Bill after grudgingly helping steal Oliver back. He may have struck her to get her to kidnap the boy, but the moment she sees him about to beat Oliver, she puts herself between them. Even when Bill draws a belt to whip him, she grabs it and tells him that he will not lay a finger on the child. She doesn't care if he hits her again or kills her, she won't allow any harm to come to Oliver. She also reminds Fagin that she could ruin him, Sikes and the rest of the children with one word to the authorities - which she will do even if it means she goes down with them. The fact that Bill doesn't try to beat Oliver again says he knows she was not making an empty threat.
** [[spoiler: Nancy's death]] can also count as a DyingMomentOfAwesome depending on how they choose to play it (certainly the case in the film). [[spoiler: While Bill is beating her, she screams as loudly as possible to alert Mr Brownlow and at least ensure Oliver gets to safety]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments: "Oom-Pah-Pah" becomes even more awesome in the film version. On the stage, it's basically an IrrelevantActOpener to set up MoodWhiplash when Bill Sikes makes his first appearance. Here, it's something Nancy spontaneously orchestrates to distract Bill and Fagin - allowing her to sneak Oliver out in the chaos. The song is the reason [[spoiler: Oliver gets his happy ending]].

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
** During "Consider Yourself", Dodger and Oliver slide down a chute to where some fishmongers are preparing their stock. Dodger slides right into a poor woman who goes flying.
** When Oliver, Dodger and Charley are running from the police - the latter two try to hide Oliver in the sack used for wrapping meat carcasses at a butcher's stall. Of course the butcher grabs the one Oliver is wrapped in and rips it off, foiling their ingenious plan.
** As "Who Will Buy?" and its elaborate choreography comes to an end, we see Bill and Dodger hiding behind a tree with a look on their faces that says "WTF did we just see?"
** As the crowd is stunned by [[spoiler: Bill accidentally hanging himself]], Dodger takes advantage of the situation by lifting one gentleman's wallet.

* WTHCastingAgency: Oliver's singing is clearly dubbed by a female voice, and it can result in an odd VocalDissonance during songs like "Where Is Love?" - where the voice sounds much older (Kathe Green was twenty-four when she dubbed the singing). They originally had two other boys to dub Mark Lester, but discovered in post production that their voices didn't match his look - and Kathe was a quick replacement.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Nancy's friend Bet is played by Creator/SheilaWhite, who'd be more recognisable to fans of ''Series/EastEnders'' and the ''Film/ConfessionsOfA'' films.