Celebrating Lionel Bart

7th July 2024

If you haven’t visited JW3 before, may I recommend you explore this beautiful venue? Opening in 2013 it was the brainchild of Dame Vivian Duffield DBE who contributed the bulk of the project’s £50 million cost, and hosts an impressive range of performance, activities and learning inspired by and engaged in Jewish arts, culture and community. It prides itself in being open to all, regardless of race, religion, belief, gender, sexuality, ability or age.

Last night we attended Celebrating Lionel Bart in the Howard Hall. An evening of sound bites and live recital performance, it was produced by Neil Marcus, devised and directed by Adam Lenson (Cable Street), with Theo Jamieson of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie fame as Musical Director. 

A full house, I got the impression that each and every person in the audience had a distinct connection to the ‘unashamedly Jewish’ Lionel Bart or at least his memory in some way, and the evening attracted a few celebs to boot including comedian and actor Matt Lucas and Barbara Windsor’s widower, Scott Mitchell.

We listened to Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Tommy Steele, Roger Cook and Anita Harris via a talking heads format projected to the rear of the stage, recalling their own personal memories of Bart, in addition to some interesting excerpts from Caroline Stafford who wrote the Lionel Bart biography Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be. 

Nigel Planer, Debbie Chazen, Jos Slovic, Michaela Stern and Brady Isaacs Pierce provided the music, accompanied by Theo Jamieson on piano, belting out some of Bart’s greatest hits such as Living Doll, Reviewing the Situation (from Oliver), Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be, To Russia with Love and As Long as He Needs Me. All strong performances, Nigel Planer’s animated version of Reviewing the Situation was worth the visit alone, and the final song As Long as He Needs Me performed by Michaela Stern, was a tear jerker, although she didn’t quite hit the final notes, which was a disappointing ending to a moving rendition with her beautiful voice. Isaacs Pierce channelled Barbara Windsor singing Where Do Little Birds Go?, Jos Slovic mesmerised the audience with Handful of Songs and Debbie Chazen gave her all with the well-known James Bond signature tune From Russia with Love and So Tell Me from Blitz, as well as a poignant Next Year in Jerusalem. 

The evening was clearly popular with the concertgoers, and the final sing song of, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be, led by the whole ensemble, was reminiscent of an East End boozer round the old Joanna. An enjoyable performance in a beautiful venue.

Rhea Shepherd