Sir Cameron Mackintosh has confirmed his new production of Lionel Bart's Oliver! is in line for a Sydney season - but only after he has transferred Charles Dickens' story of an orphan's descent into the London underworld to film.
Mackintosh, who is in Sydney for the opening night of his production of Les Miserables on Thursday, says he has yet to secure a director for a new film version (the first being Carol Reed's 1968 film, which collected six Academy Awards) but he has confirmed it will not be Tom Hooper, the director of 2012's Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe.
"Tom's much too busy with other projects," Mackintosh says. One rumoured and obvious candidate for the director's chair is Stephen Daldry of Billy Elliott fame.
Choreographer Matthew Bourne is already confirmed for the film.
Oliver! has not had a professional production in Sydney since 2002. The musical premiered in the West End in 1960 with a cast featuring Ron Moody (Fagin), Davy Jones (later of The Monkees) as The Artful Dodger, and Barry Humphries in the minor role of Mr Sowerberry, the undertaker. The show opened on Broadway in 1962.
"I'm hoping to bring Oliver! to Australia but the timing will depend on the making of the film and on the availability of theatres," Mackintosh says. "One of the reasons we delayed Les Miserables for three years after the movie came out was the lack of theatre space."
Sydney needs one and probably two new 1500-seat theatres, Mackintosh says.
"I've been shooting my mouth off about it for decades. All I can do is remind the powers that be. Frank Sartor, when he was mayor of Sydney, completely got how important theatre is to a city and he set up the new way we did business. No one with that kind of clout has taken on that role since."
