one more song / not so nurturing roles (Fagin)

[SICULAR <SICULAR...>]

p.s.  Fagin does also sing one other tune, without Jewish overtones in my 
estimation: Be Back Soon, which does reflect the qualities you mention, 
Lorele; he's solicitous of his boys (I guess I do intend the pun, but mainly 
the word's primary meaning).

still, just to clarigy the highly ambiguous nature of his "nurturing" Jewish 
role:  his relationship to those budding thieves, while it is caring its way, 
is that of a classic middleman.  he is the fence for their stolen goods, who 
clearly gives them enough to live on while hoarding the profits for himself; 
so they depend on him, and he does take care of them, but it's not a model of 
good parenting, or truly mutually beneficial business dealing even.  in fact, 
it's more the model for record labels execs (many unfortunately Jewish) who 
would take care of the car and house payments of R&B stars while depriving 
them of any royalty rights, leaving them in poverty later on.  much 
resentment is shown toward Fagin by Bill Sikes and his worldly girlfriend, 
Nancy, adult associates who also use him as a fence and are more vociferously 
aware that they may be getting a low price in exchange for the stolen goods 
they provide him.

there's also the matter of the kidnapping and isolation/intimidation of young 
Oliver by Fagin and Sikes, which is even worse in the book than the play or 
film form... this act, though Fagin is reluctant to carry it out, certainly 
shows that Fagin's self-interest predominated more than it did for Nancy, the 
most nurturing character in Oliver!'s underworld (not a Jew; just a woman 
with maternal instincts) who in the end sacrifices her own safety to return 
Oliver to a better life away from the criminal milieu where she herself is 
stuck in a classic battered-woman syndrome relationship (her big 
introspective song is As Long As He Needs Me, about the man who later kills 
her).  this unfortunately seems also to be a role Bart might also have 
sympathized with, as from what I've read he was at times beaten and robbed by 
his rough-trade tricks but still found more like them ... not unlike what 
befell Brian Epstein sometimes, when threats of blackmail may have prevented 
them going to the police.

anyone on Ron Moody?  I have seen him in one of those joke movie-star-in 
-unlikely-role reading the Yiddish Forward photos in the lobby of Workmen's 
Circle in NYC, with some Arabic headdress on.  But knowing he was famous as 
Fagin, I wonder if the Forverts is so far-fetched in his hands?  I'm sure 
everyone in the English-speaking world named Fagen and Fagin has been asked 
about this role many times, by the way.  there's a stage manager from some 
glam punk band famous in the UK in the 70s who signs that LP cover "Pick a 
Pocket" too.

thanks again - Eve

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