Although it wasn't until the full ascendancy of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh in the 1980s that world musical theatre came to be, for a decade or more, dominated by the English, there were signs in the late '50s and early '60s of new strength in the post-war British musical. One talent is most clearly identified with that resurgence, a talent that produced a worldwide hit and enduring classic.
   Born in 1930 in London's East End, Lionel Bart was a natural who could neither read nor write music. he first gained attention by creating pop hits for Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, and Anthony Newley. In 1959, Bart declared himself as a significant theatrical force with two successes, The Mermaid Theatre's Henry Fielding adaptation, 'Lock Up Your Daughters, for which he wrote the lyrics to Laurie Johnson's music, and the raucous contemporary Soho piece, 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be', staged by Joan Littlewood, for which he wrote both words and music
   Fings was entirely too parochial to merit export. 'Lock Up Your Daughters was sent over, but folded during its pre-Broadway tryout (the show was later mounted at the Goodspeed Opera House). But Bart's next show, for which he would be sole author of book, music, and lyrics, would make him an important figure in international musical theatre. Bart's background in a large, Jewish East End family instinctively drew him to the material of Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist' but musicalizing the beloved novel, already the basis of several films, was considered a risky venture. Bart wisely provided his musical, called simply Oliver!, with the description "freely adapted from..." The show captures the heart and essential plot, characters, and atmosphere of its 1838 source, ably conveying its underworld of thugs and thieves, and Dickens' heartfelt criticism of social conditions of the era. But of necessity, Bart eliminated numerous characters and plot strands, simplifying, softening, and sentimentalizing some of his source, notably the character of Fagin, who in the musical becomes a comically lovable rogue, rather than the scary, abusive figure of the novel.
   After several managements passed on the show as excessively morbid, Oliver! was mounted by Donald Albery at a cost of £15,000. Vida Hope (The Boy Friend) was mentioned to direct, but ultimately the project went to the Lock Up Your Daughters team of director Peter Coe and designer Sean Kenny. If Oliver! was original in both composition and look, Kenny's work was revolutionary. His nonrealistic, wildly influential set design featured an ever-revolving wood-and-steel construction of staircases, platforms, and bridges that instantly created new locations with cinematic fluidity. The plot was propelled by the design, and Oliver! looked like no previous musical.
   After an uncertain tryout in Wimbledon, Oliver! opened on June 30, 1960 at the New Theatre with an advance sale of only £145. But the reviews were raves, with high praise for the score, the design, and the principals. Ron Moody's sharply comic Fagin was universally admired. Perhaps even more identified with her role would be Georgia Brown as Nancy; a childhood friend of Bart's, Brown had already appeared in New York in the celebrated off-Broadway revival of 'The Threepenny Opera'. Fourteen-year-olds Keith Hamshere and Martin Horsey were the ideal Oliver and Artful Dodger. And in the role of undertaker Mr. Sowerberry (and understudying Fagin) was Barry Humphries, heard on this recording in "That's Your Funeral," a song written for him during the tryout. Humphries would become much better known to the world as Dame Edna Everage, and would go on to have a long association with Oliver!
   Oliver! would remain at the New Theatre for 2,618 performances, and soon enjoyed productions in other countries. Always attuned to the latest West End success, producer David Merrick secured the rights for Broadway, and presented it in New York in the same season in which he sponsored 'Stop The World, I Want to Get Off', the Anthony Newley - Leslie Bricusse piece (also designed by Kenny) that had opened in London a year after Oliver! After a multi-city tour, Merrick brought the eagerly awaited Oliver! to the Imperial Theatre, where it opened on January 6, 1963 and lasted 774 performances; it became the longest-running British musical in Broadway history, a record that would, of course, be toppled in the '80s. The Broadway mounting saw Brown, Humphries, Hope Jackman, and Danny Sewell repeating their West End roles in a production that was more or less a facsimile of what was playing in London. If the New York critics weren't unanimous in their praise, the show was nevertheless generally acclaimed, and Bart and Kenny took Tony Awards.
   In the years between its world premiere and New York opening, concerns were expressed that the show's depiction of Fagin, with a broad Jewish accent, might prove offensive to sensitive U.S. audiences, particularly the theatre-party trade. Charges of anti-Semitism were raised, just as they had been over Alec Guinness's Fagin in David Lean's 1948 British film. For Broadway, Clive Revill's Fagin was indeed toned down, but this London cast recording provides a sense of the original interpretation. Oliver! went on to an extremely successful 1968 film version, directed by Carol Reed, and with Moody as Fagin; few seemed to mind the overblown production numbers, and the movie took the Oscar for Best Picture. London adores the show, and gets it again and again. In 1967, shortly after the closing of the original, it played for about a year at the Piccadilly Theatre, with Humphries moving up to Fagin, opposite Marti Webb. In 1977, Cameron Mackintosh, who as a youth had fallen in love with the show, presented it at its original theatre, now called the Albery, for a run of 3 1/2 years. In 1994, Mackintosh fashioned an elaborate new version for the London Palladium, the first major London or Broadway production without Kenny's designs or a semblance of Coe's staging. It was directed by Sam Mendes and choreographed by Matthew Bourne; during its long and successful run, the production's Fagins included Jonathan Pryce, Jim Dale, Robert Lindsay, and Humphries.
   The '90s revival was mentioned for Broadway, but has thus far only come as close as Toronto. Aside from a two-month return engagement during the summer of 1965 at the Martin Beck Theatre, the only Broadway revival to date was at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1984, with Mackintosh co-producing, Moody playing his first Fagin on Broadway, and Patti LuPone as Nancy. But a negative review in The New York Times helped close the production after 17 performances. Bart followed Oliver! with two ambitious, operatic, and admired pieces. Featuring a prodigal design by Kenny, 'Blitz!' (1962) was a spectacular, moving evocation of wartime London with perhaps Bart's finest score. Maggie May (1964), a Jesus parable set among the dockworkers of contemporary Liverpool, again featured Kenny designs, Humphries and Georgia Brown, who was announced for the title role but only took it over from Rachel Roberts.
   But in 1965, Bart met with disaster when he attempted a frolicsome take on Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood with the West End Twang!!, from which director Joan Littlewood (and most of the audience, it would seem) fled. Bart's career was never the same thereafter. Most of his score was removed during the tryout and previews of the Broadway one-nighter La Strada, and announced projects like Quasimodo never came to fruition. It was, for the moment, the end of that brief glory period in English musical theatre. Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, Bart had, before the '60s were over, sold off his rights to Oliver! to pay his mounting debts (Mackintosh would graciously offer Bart a percentage and active participation in his West End revivals). There were two minor, forgotten theatrical efforts, as well as a tribute revue, Lionel, in the 70s. But while Bart was seen in a '90s South Bank Show TV interview declaring he still had more musicals in him, none would he seen; he died in 1999.
   There have been a number of other Dickens musicals, ranging from the successful London Pickwick (directed by Coe, designed by Kenny, and a failure when imported to Broadway by Merrick), the Tony-winning The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Madison Square Garden's annual A Christmas Carol, to flops like Two Cities in London and Copperfield on Broadway. No other Dickens musical has lasted the way Oliver! has, however, and its influence was felt less in those other Dickens tuners than in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of the non-musical Dickens adaptation Nicholas Nickleby and Mackintosh's Les Miserables.        
   Oliver! is unquestionably a classic, a perennial with school and amateur groups. It's perhaps not one of the great musicals: The hook is functional, effective but uninspired. But it serves to cue Bart's wholly irresistible numbers, mostly simple in structure and original orchestration, but full of charm and period flavor. The score was not, of course, above an overt hit-parade ballad like "As Long as He Needs Me," or numbers geared to the principals (Oliver's 'Where Is Love?") but lyrically vague enough to serve as pop-chart material. But the score is memorably melodic and emotionally right, and, with Kenny's design and the original stars, Oliver! was special and unforgettable. There are dozens of recordings, but, because of its performances and sense of style and atmosphere, this first one has never been touched.