Lionel Bart - Counterpoint Music Library Services

LIONEL BART 1931-1999

Born in the East End of London, Bart wrote what was arguably the greatest British musical of all time, his adaptation of Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’, Oliver!, known to millions around the world through the Oscar-winning feature film starring Ron Moody and Oliver Reed.

He earned his early living as a graphic designer and through working as a scene painter in the theatre became acquainted with the actors and singers for whom he began to write songs. The first of these was Tommy Steele, of whose backing group, The Cavemen, Bart became virtually an honorary member. This brought him success in the pop field, but he yearned to write for the theatre and the left-wing Unity Theatre in King’s Cross, which he joined, staged his first musical, Wally Pone (a Cockney version of Jonson’s Volpone) in 1958. This attracted the attention of Bernard Miles at the Mermaid, who commissioned him to write the lyrics to Laurie Johnson’s music for Lock up your Daughters, the Mermaid’s first major success, which transferred to the West End and was later staged in America.

After writing both music and lyrics for another hit show, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be, he wrote No.1 hits for both Cliff Richard (Living Doll) and Anthony Newley (Do You Mind?) before launching his greatest project, Oliver!, for which he not only wrote music and lyrics but also adapted Dickens’ novel. for the stage.

Bart found it impossible to repeat the staggering success of this show. Blitz! in 1962 and Maggie May in 1963 were comparatively moderately successful, although they have both been seen in London during the 1990s in excellent revivals by the National Youth Theatre. The burlesque of the Robin Hood legend Twang! was a disastrous failure in 1975, but Bart continued writing up to his recent death and Cameron Mackintosh’s smash-hit revival of Oliver! helped restore him to the limelight towards the end of his life.

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Canadian	International
John Beckwith Keith Bissell Glenn Buhr Howard Cable Donald Coakley Jean Coulthard Johnny Cowell Victor Davies Malcolm Forsyth Marc Fortier Harry Freedman Derek Holman Srul Irving Glick Gary Kulesha Jeff McCune Pierre Mercure Oskar Morawetz Kelly-Marie Murphy Godfrey Ridout Eric Robertson Sid Robinovitch Victor Togni Bramwell Tovey Ruth Watson Henderson	Luis DePablo Erno Dohnanyi Franco Donatoni Dan Locklair (purchase) Luca Lombardi Gustav Mahler Ennio Morricone Paul Patterson Salvatore Sciarrino Ralph Vaughan Williams Malcolm Williamson

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