A screaming pregnant woman collapsing on the street, another being clubbed to death in a doorway and a thief being shot dead at point-blank range.

These may not be what you usually associate with an evening of Christmas family fun.

But judging from the kids who sat spellbound throughout the opening night of Oliver!, gritty Dickensian reality holds far more fascination than any of this season's brainless pantomime fare.

When Oliver! first opened in the West End 44 years ago, it received 23 curtain calls and composer Lionel Bart was able to get a nose job done with the profits. Chichester Festival Youth Theatre has reprised that success with an all-singing, all-dancing violent Victorian underworld.

The 80-strong cast of ten- to 19-year-olds swaggered, leapt and tumbled through tightly choreographed favourites such as Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself and I'd Do Anything in a remarkably professional performance, equally convincing in the roles of winsome orphans and monstrous, histrionic adults.

Edward Porter played a nicely understated Oliver - anyone not getting teary at his Where Is Love? was simply inhuman - and was well matched by Jonny Boutwood's confident Dodger, while Matt Wright gave a marvellously spherical Mr Bumble. Stealing the show from the thieves, however, was Francesca Renee Reid as Nancy, handling the role with perfect measures of glamour, world-weary front and ironic self-awareness.

Against all the colour and boisterousness of the main action, the minimalist set worked well.

A little fake snow and Tom Lishman's clever soundscape - thunder crashes, sinister adult footsteps, the heart-stopping thwunk of Mr Bumble's sceptre and the slow-dripping pipe of Fagin's lair - provided all the special effects required.

The only grievances were a general lack of grime - the workhouse urchins all being implausibly clean and wholesome - and the fact that Bill Sykes' dog Bullseye, played with happy good grace by Lola the English bullterrier, was ushered on and off stage so quickly.

Scheming cockneys, domestic violence, alcoholism, doomed romance and the odd heart of gold: Oliver! has all the ingredients of an EastEnders Christmas special, with the added advantage of not having to watch Little Mo looking like she's just been slapped around the face with a dead cod. Grab a return if you can.