Lionel Bart - Musical Theatre

Musical Theatre

Bart's first professional musical was the 1959 Lock Up Your Daughters, based on the 18th century play Rape Upon Rape, by Henry Fielding. Following that, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, was notable for encouraging the use of authentic Cockney accents on the London stage. Oliver! (1960), based on Dickens's Oliver Twist was a huge hit from the beginning, becoming the first modern British musical to be transferred successfully to Broadway. It has sustained its popularity to the present day, and for many years was the standard musical performed by UK schools. The original stage production, which starred Ron Moody and Georgia Brown, contained such song hits as "As Long As He Needs Me" and "Consider Yourself" and is also notable for featuring Australian satirist Barry Humphries in his first major stage role as Mr Sowerberry and future rock stars Steve Marriott (later the lead singer of The Small Faces and Humble Pie) and Phil Collins (of Genesis fame) as The Artful Dodger.

The music for Oliver! was transcribed by Eric Rogers who wrote and composed 21 scores for the Carry On films. Bart hummed the melodies and Rogers wrote the notes on his behalf as Bart could not read or write music.

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

Bart's next two musicals, Blitz! (1962) (the song Far Away produced another hit for Shirley Bassey) and Maggie May (1964), had respectable West End runs (Blitz!, at the time London's most expensive musical ever, had a run of 568 performances), but Twang! (1965), a musical based on the Robin Hood legend, was a notorious flop and La Strada (1969), which opened on Broadway in New York City, closed after only one performance. By this time Bart was taking LSD and other drugs and was drinking heavily and this evidently affected both his work and his business judgement, he rashly 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 sold them on for £250,000) in order to realise capital to finance the shows; Bart himself later estimated that this action lost him over UK£1 million. By 1972, Bart was bankrupt with debts of £73,000. He turned to drink, and a twenty-year period of depression and alcoholism ensued. He eventually stopped drinking and attended Alcoholics Anonymous, although the years of substance abuse seriously damaged his health, leaving him with diabetes and impaired liver function.

In May 1977 an autobiographical musical called 'Lionel' opened in the West End at 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 and expectations were high. The cast included Clarke Peters, Marion Montgomery and Adrienne Posta. The role of Lionel was shared by a young Todd Carty and theatre unknown Chris Nieto. The show closed after 6 weeks losing £250,000.

He continued writing songs and themes for films, but his only real success in his later years was "Happy Endings", a 30-second jingle for a 1989 Abbey National advertising campaign which featured Bart playing the piano and singing to children.

In 1986 Bart received a special Ivor Novello Award for his life's achievement. Cameron Mackintosh, who owned half the rights to Oliver!, revived the musical at the London Palladium in 1994 in a version rewritten by Lionel 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 although he was gay. His sexuality was known to friends and colleagues but he did not "come out" until a few years before his death.

Bart died in 1999 after a long struggle with cancer and his funeral took place at Golders Green Crematorium.

A musical play based on Bart's life and using his songs, It's a Fine Life was staged at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch in 2006.