I Shall Scream Lyrics - Oliver!

Song Overview

“I Shall Scream!” is the show’s coy negotiation scene. In the workhouse parlour, Mr. Bumble turns charm into pressure while Widow Corney parries with propriety. Lionel Bart writes it as a music-hall flirt duet - a soft-shoe of insinuation where each tease bumps the plot toward Oliver’s sale and the undertaker episode.

Review and Highlights

I first learned this number as a lesson in subtext. Bumble flatters, bargains, and keeps nudging the boundary; Corney plays at shock while inching closer. The melody glides rather than belts, with gentle two-step motion and patter bursts that let jokes land on the rhyme. It’s light on the ear, sharp on character.

Highlights

• Character chess: flirtation as leverage - Bumble advances, Corney retreats, repeat.
• Music-hall DNA: patter lines, winked innuendo, and orchestral asides that behave like rimshots.
• Dramatic function: it resets the tone after the canteen chaos and sets up the street sale that follows.

Creation History

Written by Lionel Bart for the 1960 stage score, the duet appears on the Original London Cast album and on the Broadway cast recording. The 1968 film trims it - the sequence is replaced with straight dialogue, which tightens the first act but removes a key beat of Bumble-and-Corney dynamics.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Bumble visits Corney to decide Oliver’s fate. Tea turns into testing - compliments, hints, a seat on the knee offered with a smile that isn’t quite optional. Corney answers with propriety and mock alarm, her repeated “I shall scream” promising scandal more than refusal. By scene’s end they’ve struck a rapport strong enough to move Oliver along like paperwork.

Song Meaning

It’s a study in respectability theater. The surface is comic - the hook is a threat to cause a fuss - but underneath you hear two parish officials negotiating power, appetite, and class decorum. The song’s message lands in the tension between public virtue and private leverage. Mood shifts from playful to predatory and back, and that oscillation is the point: in this world, rules are elastic if you smile while bending them.

Style and rhythm

Think music-hall two-step with patter interludes. Woodwinds and strings carry the wink, while the harmony stays diatonic and tidy so the actors can shade the innuendo in speech-song.

Emotional arc

Opens arch, grows more brazen as Bumble tests boundaries, then resets to prim as Corney reasserts control. The laugh keeps you complicit until you notice what’s being bargained.

Cultural touchpoints

Victorian manners meet popular theatre. The duet borrows the cadence of comic turns you’d hear in halls and revues, and it weaponizes etiquette - a familiar British trick - to mask a transactional scene.

Key Facts

• Artist: Oliver (Musical Cast Recording)
• Featured: Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney - on notable recordings: Paul Whitsun-Jones & Hope Jackman (Original London Cast, 1960); Willoughby Goddard & Hope Jackman (Original Broadway Cast, 1963); Jenny Galloway & James Saxon (1994 London Palladium)
• Composer/Lyricist: Lionel Bart
• First recording appearance: Original London Cast album, 1960
• Length: ~2:48 on the Original London Cast album
• Genre: musical theatre - music-hall patter duet
• Mood: flirtatious, arch, sly
• Instruments: pit orchestra with prominent woodwinds, strings, light percussion
• Track #: 3 on several stage cast albums
• Language: English
• Label examples: Decca for the 1960 OLC; Columbia/Colgems issued the 1968 film soundtrack
• Film note: omitted from the 1968 movie, which uses dialogue in its place

Questions and Answers

Where does the duet sit in the show?

Act 1, immediately after “Oliver!” and just before “Boy For Sale” - it bridges the canteen scene to Oliver’s sale.

Why was it cut from the 1968 film?

The film streamlines Act 1; replacing the song with dialogue keeps momentum while centering Harry Secombe’s later street-cry scene.

Did the piece chart as a single?

No - but the Original London Cast album reached the UK Top 5 and stayed on the chart for months.

Who sings it on major recordings?

1960 London: Hope Jackman with Paul Whitsun-Jones. 1963 Broadway: Hope Jackman with Willoughby Goddard. 1994 London: Jenny Galloway with James Saxon.

What makes the music tick?

Patter-writing over a gentle two-step, with rests that act like comic beats - timing is everything.

Awards and Chart Positions

How to Sing I Shall Scream!

• Voice types: Bumble sits best in a warm baritone; Corney often cast mezzo-soprano with crisp diction.
• Tempo & feel: moderate two-step. Keep the pulse relaxed so the patter can breathe.
• Phrasing: aim for speech-song - land rhyme words cleanly, leave a micro-pause before the title hook so the laugh has space.
• Acting beats: map three gears - prim banter, playful testing, near-scandal. Show the toggle rather than a straight line.
• Ensemble balance: leave room for asides - the orchestra throws little winks; don’t sing over the rimshots.

Additional Info

• Stage recordings to hear: Original London Cast 1960; Original Broadway Cast 1963; London Palladium revival 1994; recent Chichester Festival Theatre recording features Katy Secombe with Oscar Conlon-Morrey.
• The number often survives intact in stage revivals even though the 1968 film omits it - a small reminder that comedy can carry plot weight.
• Context note: the London cast album’s success helped codify the show’s running order for later productions - a detail chart historians love to point out.
• Awards halo: the film’s Oscar run kept the score in public ear for decades, even when individual stage-only songs like this one didn’t ride the movie’s soundtrack wave.