Phil Scott as Lionel Bart. Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 19 Jun 2015
Everybody remembers Lionel Bart songs but Bart himself has withered in public memory, doubtless because of the way in which his career withered.
Australia's pre-eminent musical satirist, Phil Scott, once again has moved away from mocking politics and stepped adroitly into Cabaret Festival mode, bringing us Bart as a new bio show. Last year, with Blake Bowden, Scott presented a portrait of Mario Lanza. This year he comes solo with this fast and tight little concert tracing the life and music of the once-celebrated English songwriter, Lionel Bart. Bart was the creative name behind Oliver! and countless pop songs of the 50s and 60s. His heyday was filled with knocking up quick and chirpy hits of the day for stars like Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard.
Everyone remembers the big numbers of Oliver! and hits such as From Russia With Love, Living Doll, and Fings Ain't Wot they Used to Be, but it is the boomers who have their nostalgic bells rung when Scott revives quirky old hit-parade triumphs such as The Little White Bull.
Scott co-wrote this show with his director, Terence O'Connell, and they have pushed it to racetrack pace to pack a life story plus a might of music into a mere 70 minutes. It's exhausting, breathless stuff with Scott belting out big numbers in a big voice. He may not have the broadest vocal range in the world, but he has perfect pitch and a particularly agreeable voice. One cannot tire of him. And, of course, there's his glorious, effortless musicianship.
He packed the houses in the Artspace - and rightly so. Adelaide audiences know to expect a quality show when Scott's in town.
The show is set at the end of Bart's career when, from a life of celebrity and opulence, he has slipped to living alone in a gin-soaked flat above a 24-hour laundrette. The sparse Artspace set suggests this with a grand piano on one side and the rest of the flat on the other with a cheap lamp, armchair, and table with bottle of Tanqueray.
Between gulps of stage gin, Scott regales with Cockney gusto. He tells of the Jewish lad's precocious talents, how he changed his name from Lionel Begleiter, how he tried to keep his homosexuality in the closet, how he chummed up with Judy Garland and Noel Coward, how his inability to read or write music hampered his career and how he sold the rights to Oliver! for 350 pounds to the awful Max Bygraves, but how Cameron Mackintosh was kind to him when he later took control of those rights.
It was a rounded picture, an engrossing rags-to-riches-to-rags showbiz story well told, and another terrific night from our fabulous Phil Scott.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 20 Jun
Where: Artspace
Booings: bass.net.au
