Play on! Give me excess of it…
Excess… That’s Lionel Bart. He made and squandered a fortune.. and the Greek chorus of tabloid middle England thrilled to his Icarus fall.
Along the way he gave us the most beloved English stage musical of them all – Oliver! which is coming back into the West End from Chichester Festival Theatre for Christmas 2024 – as well as one of the biggest flops in Twang!!!. Yes, that’s THREE exclamation points in the title. (Bart even punctuated to excess.)
Did success go to his head? Or was it the blizzard of cocaine?
Musicals, number one pop hits, the story of the East Ender who had the chutzpah to make Charles Dickens his junior partner is as rich a tale as any ever told in London.
If he’d been a New Yorker they’d have renamed a Broadway playhouse in his honour. Maybe an entire street. Why no such garlands in his home town? A multiple outsider – Jewish, gay, working class – was he one outsider too many?
We’ll follow him from Stepney to Chelsea via the West End through the highs (of all kinds) and lows – with cameo appearances from Judy Garland, Georgia Brown & Joan Littlewood along the way.
This virtual tour is presented on Sunday 8th December at 7pm (1900) to coincide with the new production of Oliver! opening at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in December oliverthemusical.com
Book Bart! The Virtual Tour…