The Story of Bart – London Hippodrome

The Story of Bart was performed at the London Hippodrome Matcham Rooms.

For almost two hours at the London Hippodrome, John Barr WAS Lionel Bart, so much so that my companion asked innocently on the way out: “I wonder what Lionel’s doing next?” Say no more!

Bart died in sad circumstances in 1999, but Barr brought him vividly back to life, singing the great songs composed by the gor-blimey Stepney tailor’s son who created Oliver! for the stage and chart-toppers such as ‘Living Doll’ for Cliff Richard and ‘A Handful of Songs’ and ‘Little White Bull’ for Tommy Steele.

But this show was far more than a run-through of his evergreen hits, because interweaved with them were all the juicy yarns about Bart’s crazy millionaire-to-bankrupt life.

The Story of Bart, appropriately premiered at Jewish New Year, was a one-off for the hugely talented Barr, who as a 12-year-old acted in the 1977 Albery revival of Oliver!, but hopefully it is a show with a future as it works a good deal better than some of Bart’s later efforts such as the disastrous Twang!! did.

That 1965 flop, which he underwrote after backers dropped out, was the final straw in a sad decline which eventually left him a broken man in 1972 with £73,000 debts and needing to sell the publishing rights of his life’s work to Max Bygraves for buttons.

Yet only a few years earlier Bart, who couldn’t read or write music but hummed the songs and got proper musicians to transcribe them, had been the toast of the West End and Broadway, and with so much money that he didn’t know what to do with it all.

The story goes (although not mentioned) that so many storylines were rewritten or thrown out of Twang!! that Ronnie Corbett, returning to rehearsal from a quick trip to the loo, was informed his lines had been axed from the scene. “Just as well I only went for a pee,” retorted Corbett. “Just as well it wasn’t a shit, I’d have been written out of the show entirely!”

Sadly, the money went on drugs, drink and lavish Chelsea parties which he hosted at his 27-room Fun Palace mansion where he even left tenners in a tray by the door for guests’ cab-fare home. That was where England’s footballing heroes ended up the night they won the 1966 World Cup and Muhammad Ali was a visitor. Even Princess Margaret was aghast at his debauched hedonism and later told him: “You silly bugger, Lionel, for losing all that money.”

So a great career – not only Oliver! but earlier Lock Up Your Daughters and Fings Ain’t What They Used T’Be and later Blitz! and Maggie May – burned bright only for a relatively short time, basically 1959 to 1965, the period during which those five shows and hits like the James Bond movie title song ‘From Russia With Love’ were penned.

Supporting Barr in front of a full house at the Hippodrome was a big cast of proven talent and newer names, backed by an absolute belter of a three-man band led by MD Gary Jerry on piano.

Jackie Marks – Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh’s 1983 Christmas-time revival of Oliver! at the Aldwych – powered her way through ‘I’d Do Anything’ and ‘As Long As He Needs Me’, while Howard Samuels did a terrific turn as Fagin on ‘Reviewing the Situation’ and ‘Be Back Soon’.

Others in fine voice were the two leads from recent Southwark fringe hit Dogfight, Laura Jane Matthewson and Jamie Muscato, who gave it plenty, as did X Factor finalist John Wilding with Oliver’s ballad ‘Where Is Love?’, while five cast members from the Guildford School of Acting’s recent production of Twang!! reminded those of us who had seen it what an unforgettably weird experience that was.

But it was Barr’s night and it is never a hardship to watch this fine actor-singer in action. The Story of Bart, “a work in progress”, certainly deserves to be seen again once it has been tidied up a bit.

Jeremy Chapman

N.B. With the show being written as a ‘story’, there was unfortunately no opportunity to introduce the cast as they came on, so the absence of any sort of programme made it a guessing game for the audience who might have liked to know who they were listening to. For younger performers trying to build a reputation, such things make a difference.