News about Lionel Bart

What a difference that exclamation mark made. Lionel Bart reinvented Dickens's great novel Oliver Twist, about grinding poverty, child exploitation and murder, as a fairy tale, filled with chirpy Cockney capers and lovable, hummable tunes. As a 13-year-old schoolboy, Cameron Mackintosh became spellbound by the 1960 original production and, ever since, Oliver! has spun a thread through his theatrical life. As a 19-year-old he was an assistant stage manager (also playing a pie-man) on the show's first tour.

PATRICK MARMION: What is the greatest British musical of all time?The cascading Les Mis?The haunting Phantom?Or maybe the saucy, evergreen Rocky Horror Show?Matilda has been raking in cash for a dozen years in the West End, and Mamma Mia!We may never get out of our minds. And if you're thinking My Fair Lady or The Sound Of Music, you may want to wait until you find that they are in fact American. There is no competition for me, however. It's got to be Oliver!I'd take Lionel Bart's Sixties knees-up eight or even nine days a week. Everybody knows that it's a show chock full of pre-loaded ear-worms from the heart-melting Where Is Love to the Oom-Pah.