Re: Oliver

[SICULAR <SICULAR...>]

hello,

yes!  wow, you're getting into lots of previews of new Metropolitan Klezmer 
material here.  we've got a version of one of Fagin's songs on our new CD 
(Pick a Pocket or Two); both of Fagin's tunes in the show have very 
interesting qualities reminiscent of various Eastern European Jewish forms.  
Lionel Bart, the writer-composer-lyricist of this show, was born Lionel 
Begleiter, the son of an East End tailor who had fled pogroms in Galicia.  he 
did change his name and have a nose job, but on the other hand his 
characterization of Fagin, quite central to his musical Oliver!, is much more 
sympathetic than Dickens' original depiction of "the Jew" in his novel Oliver 
Twist.  Here's a great link for some of this material:

http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/lionelbart.html 

What I also found out at this link, to my delight, is that Bart was also a 
"friend of Dorothy" (literally and figuratively —  his many friends in London 
included not only Judy Garland and Brian Epstein [Epstein was the Beatles' 
manager, another closeted queer Jew in the London scene; Epstein, who came 
from a more well-to-do family than Bart/Begleiter, never changed his name; he 
died in 1967 from sleeping pills] as well as the Fab Four themselves, Noel 
Coward, etc.).  Lionel Bart considered himself a Socialist, amassed a fortune 
much of which he gave and partied away, was an early trendsetter in the Mod 
scene, went through years of ups and downs after that boom ended, and came 
out as gay near the end of his life.  He died in 1999.  

By the way, Bart, who seems to have been a musical genius from young 
childhoood, never learned to read or write music, at least not much.  as I 
understand it sang most of his material into a tape recorder to be 
transcribed and arranged by others.  (on the other hand, in the book Ready, 
Steady, Go! The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London, you can read 
about Bart's coming up with session material for the Rolling Stones, among 
many others.)  He not only wrote pop hits like "Livin' Doll" but also was 
involved in 'discovering' singers who were then promoted as England's new pop 
idols in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

His use of iconic British figures in his musical theater work goes beyond 
Dickens to Robin Hood, to whom references appear in "Pick a Pocket or Two" as 
well as shows Bart wrote before and after Oliver!, an amazing musical which 
was his one hit show.  The actor who plays Fagin in the 1968 film, Ron Moody, 
had also played the part in the original London cast for years before that.  
Now what about Moody: anyone know his background?

Eve Sicular

drummer/bandleader
Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos
151 First Avenue #145
NYC  NY  10003  USA
tel:  212-475-4544
fax:  212-677-6304
www.metropolitanklezmer.com
sicular (at) aol(dot)com

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