Oliver! may be a dark story full of criminals and cruelty, but it’s also a robustly entertaining musical.

As directed by Patrick Nims, Stumptown Stages’ production of the 1960 show brings out the rousing cheer of Lionel Bart’s music … even as villainous adult characters cackle over their mistreatment of unfortunate children.

With a book, music and lyrics, by Bart, Oliver! is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1838 novel Oliver Twist, and Stumptown has projected chapter titles that evoke the thrilling satisfaction of turning the pages of a beloved leatherbound book.

The story follows an 11-year-old orphan (Ainsley Brown, the alternate Oliver who performed at the Nov. 30 matinee, in place of Coleman Casebeer), who toils away in a workhouse for boys overseen by the heartless, R-rolling Mr. Bumble (Brian Kennedy) and the comically snarling Widow Corney (Masaya Urba).

When the famished boy dares to ask for a second serving of gruel, Mr. Bumble sells him to the undertakers, Mr. Sowerberry and his wife (Adam John Roper and Tiara E. Primus), who are also nasty but very funny as well. I especially enjoyed the way Roper referred to Mrs. Sowerberry as “my sweet,” then picked some food out of his teeth.

Things look brighter – and more colorful – when Oliver escapes the sinister couple and gets swept up by a den of young pickpockets, including the dashing and smiling Artful Dodger (a splendid CJ Bradford, in their first professional performance). Leading the ensemble in the exhilarating “Consider Yourself,” Dodger makes being part of a pickpocket family look pretty jolly. Plus, with Michelle Kiyoi’s delightful costuming for the character, with plaid pants and a jaunty velvet jacket, he reminded me of the conniving fox in William Steig’s children’s book Dr. De Soto.

The whole production includes wonderfully detailed and mobile sets (Steve Coker), and evocative lighting and sound (by Demetri Pavlatos and Marcus Storey, respectively) that make it feel like a picture book come to musical life (music direction by Barney Stein), taking us into a stratified world populated by galloping and gleeful rogues, humble workers including a knife grinder and a flower seller, and one posh gentleman named Mr. Brownlow (Rich Cohn-Lee).

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Framed by two curving staircases and an upper balcony/bridge, the set also includes a center section from which a variety of rooms roll forward. Among these is the elegant library in Mr. Brownlow’s fine house and also the undertaker’s shop, with its creepy coffin and gruesome instruments hanging on the wall.

Mr. Brownlow may be rich and kind, but Fagin (Kirk Mouser, Stumptown’s executive artistic director), the ringleader of the pickpocket operation, is in a charismatic class by himself.

In the novel, Dickens’ Fagin is an antisemitic caricature. But Bart, who was born Lionel Begleiter and was Jewish, gave his Fagin a more affable – and even morally conflicted – character. As played by Mouser, he’s also a mesmerizing and thoroughly appealing presence on a stage full of compelling sights and sounds. Dressed in a shawl and sash, along with gold chains and a beaded cap, his attire even suggests an exotic “other” who’s had to rely on his wits to survive the rigid world of Victorian London.

Mouser’s physically energetic performance is a tour de force, and with a nimble voice that curls like a contented cat around Bart’s lyrics, his eyes also twinkle with a merry zest for riches. Yes, Fagin puts children at risk, but he doesn’t exhibit the meanness of many of the other characters, and he’s even somewhat protective of his young charges, whom he feeds better than the supposedly upright folks who run the workhouse.

While his Fagin is a dazzler, the other performances also gleam, from the winsome, clear-voiced Brown singing “Where is Love?” to Ashley Moore’s vibrant scarlet-clad Nancy, who holds the audience in her pocket as she sings “As Long as He Needs Me.” She’s a victim who insists on standing by her abusive man, but in Moore’s bold voice, the song almost sounds like a power anthem.

One marvel of the show – and Nim’s direction – is that much of this large cast is made up of children, all of whom sing and dance with admirable precision and zest throughout the approximately two-and-a-half-hour show. Their first number, “Food, Glorious Food,” is so sweet and funny, I found it to be both a delight and a bit of a heart-tugger.

Lots of ugly stuff happens in Oliver! – especially when the menacing Bill Sikes (Justin Duff) lurks in the London fog. With such dark characters afoot – he carries a cudgel and even Nancy cheerfully mentions the child-thieves, if captured, could be hanged – audiences might detect a whiff of the edgier Stephen Sondheim. But the earnest and irresistible exuberance of Bart’s crowd-pleasing and catchy tunes – and Jeff George’s tabletop choreography in “Oom-Pah-Pah” and other rollicking numbers – slams the door in the face of such comparisons.  

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In all, Stumptown’s production might just leave you hungering for more big shows packed with glorious musical numbers, elaborate sets, and uniformly winning performances.

Oliver!

• Company: Stumptown Stages
• Where: Winningstad Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway, downtown Portland
• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 21
• Ticket & schedule information: Here