How cool is this? My big girls were bitten by the theatre bug when they got a chance to collaborate with the high school kids in their spring production of Oliver! I am so grateful for educators of all stripes, but especially those who are so accomplished at their jobs that they can cultivate inspiration and motivation - I think there is a great deal more musical theatre in our future. It was a great show! Siduri is not in this picture, but Sadie is top row, 4th from the left. We're still singing....
The guy that wrote both the book (the script, not the original Dickens...) AND the music for Oliver! was Lionel Bart. Bart essentially put English musical theatre on the map with this show and a few others, many of which end in exclamation points (Oliver! Blitz! Twang!! - has 2 even - and Lionel!). Oliver! was his biggest musical theatre hit, but he also had some pop music successes - he wrote songs for people like Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele. The interesting thing about Lionel Bart is that he could not read or write music at all. All of his "writing" was done by ear, and for Oliver! he collaborated with Eric Rogers, who wrote down whatever Bart would hum or sing to him. Bart was a prodigy who wasn't interested in learning violin (smart boy), and obviously someone who found success while following his own non-traditional path, which is very cool. Unfortunately he died rather broke, after making some bad business decisions and selling the rights to Oliver! for a fraction of their worth. Still, we are grateful for the music he left behind, especially these days in our house. My role of choice would be Fagin, despite all his flaws...
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