SIGNING FOR DEAF GIVES OLD FAVORITE NEW DEPTH.

Byline: Julio Martinez Correspondent

A musical by a deaf stage company? While the idea may boggle the mind and confound conception, the Deaf West Theatre production of ``Oliver'' is an inspired success in its own right.

Under the deft, imaginative adaptation and staging of Tony Award winner Jeff Calhoun (Broadway revival of ``Grease''), the audience is introduced to not only a unique interpretation of the popular Lionel Bart musical but one that reaffirms the potential power of live theater to transcend any limits placed on the imagination. Calhoun's creative interplay of speaking and signing actors is nearly seamless, bonded by the director's clever incorporation of Dickens' original text to facilitate the continuity of the story line.

Utilizing the great 19th-century British author's words even more faithfully than Bart's original book, the chronicle of waifish young Oliver Twist (Joshua Ari Soudakoff) bounces forward under the adroit musical direction/keyboard work of Carol Weiss and a facile four-piece instrumental ensemble. And given the limited space he had to work with, Brian-Paul Mindoza's musical staging is remarkable.

This tune-filled adventure follows Oliver's nutritionally deprived orphanage days under the rule of inept Mr. Bumble (Troy Kotsur) and the rapacious Widow Corney (Carol Kline), to his brief but volatile experience as a mortician's assistant to the cadaverous Ms. Sowerberry (Vae), to his adventurous days as an apprentice thief under the tutelage of a nefarious trio: the gleefully larcenous Fagin (George McDaniel), congenial, light-fingered pickpocket the Artful Dodger (Darris Dorran) and the murderous master crook Bill Sykes (Ryan Schlect/Tasos Pappos). Oliver's only oasis of true friendship is his relationship with Sykes' streetwise but tenderhearted girlfriend Nancy (Antoinette Abbamonte/Susan Hoffman).

The central driving force of the action is McDaniel, who skillfully segues back and forth from being the sophisticated ongoing narrator to inhabiting the low-down persona of Fagin. McDaniel's dual role antics add to the hilarity as his stiff-necked narrator facade often has to dissolve in an instant into the comical villain who delights in instructing his thieving charges (``Pick a Pocket or Two,'' ``Be Back Soon''), yet is single-mindedly looking out for himself (``I'm Reviewing the Situation'').

For the most part, the ensemble is superb. The shifting focus between players is dancelike, seemingly effortless, but clearly a careful blending of choreographed action. The attention is never divided as the singing Nancy (Hoffman) and the signing Nancy (Abbamonte) meld their talents in the ironic ``It's a Fine Life,'' the raucous ``Oom Pah, Pah, Pah'' and the emotion-packed ``As Long as He Needs Me.''

This synergistic relationship turns into a quartet as Soudakoff's Oliver and Abbamonte's Nancy offer a playful, signed rendition of ``I'd Do Anything'' that is voiced in perfect unison by young Josh Breslow (the voice of Oliver) and Hoffman. Breslow also turns in a fragile but haunting a cappella rendition of

``Where Is Love.'' Doran is quite effective as the swaggering, scampish Dodger who first invites Oliver into Fagin's den of thieves (``Consider Yourself'').

The facts

--The show: ``Oliver.''

--Where: Deaf West Theatre, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

--When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through June 25.

--Tickets: $22. For information, call [phone].

--Our rating: Three stars

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo: George McDaniel, left, is the narrator, Harris Doran is the Artful Dodger, and Joshua Ari Soudakoff plays the title role in the Deaf West Theatre's American Sign Language adaptation of the musical ``Oliver.''