Jake Heston Miller as Oliver and the company of Oliver! at Arena Stage. Photo: Margot Schulman.

Arena Stage isn’t content with presenting Oliver! as merely timeless. Instead, Molly Smith’s urgent, updated production is going for something bigger: timeliness. And she pulls it off.

This new Oliver! is modern, relevant, and fresh. Set in present-day London and featuring a gritty look and a diverse, versatile cast, Arena’s production is an Oliver! for 2015. There’s a sense of the gentrification and privilege separating the various classes in Oliver! (is the dairy from that vendor’s gelato cart grass-fed? Probably). The pickpockets and ne‘er-do-wells aren’t just a sea of adorably grubby street urchins—one is forced to imagine how circumstances might have brought a menacing gang member and a man bun-sporting hipster to the same tough place.

All these changes aren’t here to make the audience feel particularly comfortable. It’s easy to think of Nancy, the show’s stand-by-your-man prostitute with a heart of gold, as a sort of dated relic (her iconic torch song, “As Long As He Needs Me,” has always been one of those gorgeous-but-problematic Broadway standards contemporary women hate to love). But Eleasha Gamble won’t let us dismiss her easily. She imbues “Needs Me” with a chilling defiance, casting away her friends’ concern for her safety. And she leads the chorus in a rousing, hip hop-infused rendition of the joyous “It’s A Fine Life” (Arena’s updated orchestrations for Oliver! owe something to the contemporary radio-influenced shows taking Broadway by storm today, like Hamilton).

Major ambitions aside, Arena’s Oliver! is still primarily a brisk, entertaining night at the theater. There’s a Stomp-inspired opening orphanage scene, making creative use of disposable foil food containers. There’s an impossibly-light-on-his-feet Artful Dodger (Kyle Coffman) to lead the crew in vivid, acrobatic dance numbers. The set design invokes a large, looming London with a catwalk that helps bring alive street scenes. Lionel Bart’s 1960 score still has some chestnuts the production can’t quite save (the quaint seduction number “I Shall Scream” comes to mind), but the show breezes through its more than 20 music numbers. Perhaps almost too quickly by the end—the climactic scene and resolution feel rushed and abrupt.

Jake Heston Miller makes for an adorable, angel-voiced lead, though he could work to emote more during Oliver’s plaintive signature song, “Where is Love?” Two surprisingly delightful supporting turns come from Dorea Schmidt and Tom Story as the funeral home-owning Sowerberrys; they lend a sort of goth zaniness to the self-serving couple. Less of a surprise—but no less welcome—is Jeff McCarthy as Fagan, the opportunistic father to pickpockets. McCarthy softens any darker edges Fagan might have, inspiring a sense of worship from his little crew of pickpockets. He proves by the show’s end that a man can maybe change—but do we really want him to?

Oliver! runs through Jan. 3 at Arena Stage. Tickets ($50-$99) are available online. *

*link has been corrected