Lionel Bart

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Lionel Bart
Bart in 1973, by Allan Warren
Born
Lionel Begleiter

(1930-08-01)1 August 1930
Stepney, London, England
Died3 April 1999(1999-04-03) (aged 68)
Acton, London, England
Burial placeGolders Green Crematorium, London, England
Occupation(s)Composer and writer
Years active1952–1999

Lionel Bart (1 August 1930 – 3 April 1999) was a British writer and composer of pop music and musicals. He wrote Tommy Steele's "Rock with the Caveman" and was the sole creator of the musical Oliver! (1960). With Oliver! and his work alongside theatre director Joan Littlewood at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, he played an instrumental role in the 1960s birth of the British musical theatre scene after an era when American musicals had dominated the West End.[1]

Best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!, Bart was described by Andrew Lloyd Webber as "the father of the modern British musical".[1][2][3] In 1963 he won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Oliver!, and the 1968 film version of the musical won a total of 6 Academy Awards including the Academy Award for Best Picture.[1]

Some of his other songs include the theme song to the

Jack Jones of his show tune from Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be), "Easy Going Me" by Adam Faith, "Always You And Me" by Russ Conway, and several songs recorded by Tommy Steele ("A Handful of Songs", "Butterfingers" and "Little White Bull").[1]
By the mid 1960s he was as well known for his outlandish lifestyle, his celebrity friends, his excesses and his parties, as he was for his work.

Early life

He was born Lionel Begleiter, the youngest of seven surviving children of

Galician Jews, Yetta (née Darumstundler) and Morris Begleiter, a master tailor.[4] He grew up in Stepney; his father worked in the area as a tailor in a garden shed. The family had escaped the pogroms against Jews by Ukrainian cossacks in Galicia
.

As a young man he was an accomplished painter. When Bart was aged six, a teacher told his parents that he was a musical genius. His parents gave him an old violin, but he did not apply himself and the lessons stopped.[citation needed]

Songwriting

Bart in 1973

He started his songwriting career in amateur theatre, first at The International Youth Centre in 1952 where he and a friend wrote a revue together called IYC Revue 52. The following year the pair auditioned for a production of the Leonard Irwin play The Wages of Eve at London's Unity Theatre. Shortly afterward Bart began composing songs for Unity Theatre productions, contributing material (including the title song) to its 1953 revue Turn It Up, and songs for its 1953 pantomime, an agitprop version of Cinderella. While at the Unity he was talent-spotted by Joan Littlewood, and so joined Theatre Workshop.[5] He also wrote comedy songs for the Sunday lunchtime BBC radio programme The Billy Cotton Band Show.[6]

He first gained widespread recognition through his pop songwriting, penning numerous hits for the stable of young male singers promoted by artist manager and music publisher

Jack Jones of his show tune from Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be), "Easy Going Me" (Adam Faith), and "Always You and Me" (with Russ Conway
).

Bart was also responsible for the discovery of two of Parnes' biggest stars. It was on his recommendation that Parnes went to see singer Tommy Hicks, whom he signed and renamed Tommy Steele, and Bart also suggested that Parnes see singer Reg Smith, who was then performing at the Condor Club. Although Parnes missed his performance, he went round to Smith's house and signed him up on the basis of Bart's recommendation. Smith went on to score a number of UK hits under his new stage name Marty Wilde.[8]

Twenty-seven years after it became a number one hit for Cliff Richard, "Living Doll" was re-recorded by

Comic Relief, and spent another three weeks at number one.[9]

Musical theatre

Bart's first professional musical was 1959's

Carry On films. Bart hummed the melodies and Rogers wrote the notes on his behalf as Bart could not read or write music.[10]

In 1968 Oliver! was made into a movie starring Ron Moody, Oliver Reed and Shani Wallis that won several Oscars, including best film. It is estimated that around this time Bart was earning 16 pounds a minute from Oliver![11]

Bart's next two musicals,

Broadway after the removal of most of Bart's songs, closed after only one performance. By this time Bart was taking LSD and other drugs and was drinking heavily.[13]

Bart used his personal finances to try to rescue his last two productions, selling his past and future rights to his work, including Oliver! which he sold to the entertainer Max Bygraves for £350 (Bygraves later[when?] sold them on for £250,000)[14] to realise capital to finance the shows; Bart later estimated that this action lost him over £1 million.[13] By 1972, Bart was bankrupt with debts of £73,000. A twenty-year period of depression and alcoholism ensued. He eventually stopped drinking, although the years of substance abuse seriously damaged his health, leaving him with diabetes and impaired liver function.[13]

He wrote Next Year in Jerusalem in 1975–1976, but it was not staged until 2021 in a virtual performance of the

New London Theatre. It was loosely based on Bart's early life as a child prodigy. Bart added some new songs for the show. The cast included Clarke Peters, Marion Montgomery and Adrienne Posta. The role of Lionel was shared by a young Todd Carty and Chris Nieto. The show closed after six weeks.[citation needed
]

Later life

Bart continued writing songs and themes for films, but his only real success in his later years was "Happy Endings", a song he wrote for a 1989

Abbey National advertising campaign, which featured Bart playing the piano and singing to children.[16]

He received a special

This Is Your Life.[citation needed] Cameron Mackintosh, who owned half the rights to Oliver!, revived the musical at the London Palladium in 1994 in a version featuring rewrites by Bart. Mackintosh gave Bart a share of the production royalties. At the peak of his career, Bart was romantically linked in the media with singers Judy Garland and Alma Cogan,[6] though he was homosexual. His sexual preferences were known to friends and colleagues, but he did not announce them publicly until a few years before his death.[13]

Bart died at the Hammersmith Hospital in West London on 3 April 1999,[17] of liver cancer.[18] A memorial bench is dedicated to him in Kew Gardens.[19]

A workshop of a musical based on Bart's life and using his songs, It's a Fine Life, was staged in 2006 at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch.[20] A later version titled More! was presented in concert at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2015 featuring Neil McDermott as Bart, Jessica Hynes as Joan Littlewood and Sonny Jay as Charlene, with an appearance by 1960s pop-star Grazina Frame, who was an original cast member in Bart's Blitz!.[citation needed]

West End theatrical credits

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Eric Pace (5 April 1999). "Lionel Bart, 68, Songwriter; Created the Musical 'Oliver!'". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "Lionel Bart". Bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016.
  3. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Bart, Lionel (1930-1999) Biography". Screenonline.org.uk.
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72145. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 2015-01-30. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. ^ This is detailed mainly in David Roper's book, and some of it in Colin Chambers'
  6. ^ a b "Lionel Bart". Archived from the original on 29 June 2004. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
  7. ^ ""Do You Mind?": Anthony Newley". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Larry Parnes". Rockabilly.nl. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  9. ^ Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, The Lionel Bart Story, by David and Caroline Stafford, Omnibus Press, 2011.
  10. ^ "Eric Rogers | Scores | Themes | Music from the classic movies". British Cinema Greats. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  11. ^ Nosheen Iqbal (19 January 2009). "Consider yourself an expert on Oliver!'s Lionel Bart?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  12. ^ "Broadway Buzz". Broadway.com. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  13. ^ a b c d "Tom Vallance: Lionel Bart obituary, The Independent, 5 April 1999". The Independent. 6 October 2011. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  14. ^ "Max Bygraves – Obituaries". The Stage. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  15. ^ Thomas, Sophie (25 January 2021). "Maureen Lipman to sing lost Lionel Bart musical". London Theatre Guide. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  16. ^ "YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019.
  17. ^ "1960s Britrock: 1900-1934". Skidmore.edu.
  18. ^ "The Lionel Bart Story: Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be - Books - Books About Music". Musicroom.com. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  19. ^ "London's Famous Bench Dedications". Londonist.com. 21 October 2016. Archived from the original on 6 March 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  20. ^ "It's a Fine Life 2006". Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-16.

Sources

External links

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