`Oliver! is the score and script of Lionel Bart’s interpretation of the novel by Charles Dickens whose far more serious concerns were those of the fate of young boys in the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. The British Library gives its interpretation here: https://www.bl.uk/works/oliver-twist#:~:text=Charles%20Dickens’s%20(1812%2D,Law%20Amendment%20Act%20of%201834.It is worth the read.