Identifying Characteristics Of Bart's 'Blitz !'
Clearly identify characteristics of Bart 's work, providing examples where these are evident using as main focuses Oliver! (1960) and Blitz! (1962).
Lionel Bart created a number of musicals and popular songs during the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote songs for Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and many others. Amongst his series of musicals, he created the title musicals ‘Blitz!’ and the award winning show ‘Oliver!’
Bart’s family fled Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Russian’s invaded in 1914. ‘A quarter of a million decided it was time to up sticks’ (2011, pg 13) and Bart’s parents travelled with their eldest child.
Lionel Bart was born Lionel Begleiter in London’s East End, to Morris and Yetta. He was their youngest child, …show more content…
although sources appear to disagree on the size of the family, ranging from an article in 1942 in the Radio times stating there were 17 Begleiter’s; ‘We 15 kids’; to the Daily mail in 1995, stating he came from a much smaller family; ’I was the youngest of seven’. Lionel’s father ‘was a tailor, with his workshop in a shed at the bottom of the garden’ (2011, pg 11). Willy Goldman worked for ten weeks for Morris Begleiter in 1924. He describes Morris as a ‘lazy, self-important bully’ who enjoyed ‘betting on horses, drinking brandy and taking vapour baths.’ (2011, pg13) Despite Morris’ attitude, Lionel was indulged by his mother and sisters who allowed his huge self esteem to flourish.
There were many stages to poverty. The Jewish poverty in the East end, in which Lionel grew up with, created a greater sense of community. One of Bart’s colleges at unity theatre, where he worked as set painter, as his first job in a theatre, remembers ‘having to go with his mum to the Jewish Board of Guardians in order to plead their case for a soup kitchen.’ (2011, pg 1)
When a person has been brought up in straitened circumstances they can adopt a range of attitudes towards their childhoods. Some boast about their poverty, over exaggerating their past experiences. Others may become exceedingly optimistic about situations or bitter and angry towards poverty. At one stage or another, Bart adopted all of these throughout his career, whether that was throwing himself on the mercy of the court in his bankruptcy hearing in 1972, or writing ‘Blitz!’; ‘the show about his wartime childhood.’ (2011 pg 15)
Blitz looks at the stories of two families; the Blitzstein’s and the Locke’s and ‘When the blitz erupts around them they are all forced to make drastic changes to their way of life’.(2009 pg 35) The two families, who happen to own neighbouring stalls, don’t have a very good relationship with each other. This relationship is established at the beginning of the show, with the song: ‘Tell her, Tell him’ sung by Mrs Blitzstein and Mr Locke. Lionel recalls:
‘my mum and dad had this love – hate thing … I was like the go-between. It was ‘tell him this’ or ‘tell her that’, (2011 pg 14)
However before we are introduced to the main characters, we meet the community in an air-raid shelter. The different people that were brought together because of the Blitz, arguably the most important of these are the children, who play a prominent role in the environment, bringing vibrance and life to scenes. As the story begins to unfold, news spreads through the shelter that some of the characters within the community have died in an air-raid, the parents of a young boy, Tommy.
‘Death came into the drama early in the first act’. (2011, pg 16) This can be linked to the death of his grandmother, which happened when he was four and he was playing at her bedside when she died.
The character of Mrs Blitzstetin ‘embodies so much of the spirit of his own mother’ (2011 pg 123) recalls Joan Maitland, who wrote the book Blitz! She goes on to remark how to make one particular scene in the underground shelter stand out; when the cast turn to the wireless for news and comfort Vera Lynn was recruited to record ‘The Day after Tomorrow’; a song Bart wrote to sound like a war time hit. As the plot thickens, Mrs Blitzstein and Mr Locke have to deal with the fact their children are falling in love with each other.
The everyday life is captured in each setting, but one of the most prominent settings from Lionel’s childhood, is their local marker: Petticoat Lane. There were ‘clothing and fabric stalls, and the bedding and curtain stalls, in front of the shops selling latkes, lox, herrings, you could watch escapologists and crockery jugglers, fortune-tellers and weight-guessers. There were barrel organists, cross dressing skirt dancers and Wilson, Keppel and Betty clones who’d … do their soft shoe shuffle’ (2011, pg 16) and much, much more. The chaos and business the description creates is very well translated to the stage at the beginning of act two, with the number ‘Petticoat Lane’.
Bart goes on to remember being ‘brought up on all the traditional kids’ games … and we could play in the streets safely’ (2011 pg, 15) This is seen throughout Blitz, especially in act two where the children sing some traditional nursery rhymes, including ‘It’s raining, It’s pouring’.
Everyone has their own battles to overcome, however after many humorous, and some tragic situations, they all find individual peace.
In the East end, there ‘were 30 to 40 Yiddish theatres to choose from.’ (2011 pg 16) Bart remembers how his ‘mum and dad used to take me to a place called the Yiddish Theatre.’ (2011 pg 17) Alongside the street songs and nursery rhymes, Bart’s life was filled with many forms of music. There were the performers in the market, ‘pubs had sing-alongs … the core repertoire – a mixture of light classics, war time favourites and music-hall novelties’. (2011, pg 18)
It was not only in social environments where Lionel experienced music. He remembers: ‘My mother used to sing lullabies’ (2011, pg 18) He also experienced music on long coach journeys. One such song he created within Blitz. ‘Mum’s and Dad’s’ is a song built upon counter melodies; tunes that are heard as melodies in their own right, but can also be sung together. It ‘is a coach party song … this side of the coach are the mums, the side’s the dad’s’ (2011, 128).
Lionel’s childhood was full of Jewish music.
‘I used to go to the synagogue with my dad ….. I loved the music (2011, pg 18). Jewish music was heard everywhere; in theatres, music shops, and on the wireless. Jewish music in America had ‘absorbed, adopted and stole’ (2011, pg 18) elements of jazz, ragtime and blues. Cole Porter, the singular success within musical theatre not to come from a Jewish background, ‘admitted the secret of writing a hit tune was to ‘… write a Jewish tune.’’ (2011 pg 18) Within Lionel’s musical Blitz, there are numerous modes and rhythms of the synagogue. In ’Bake a Cake’ the use of the flattened fifth at the very start, sometimes heard in the synagogue as the sound of the rams horn, ‘is the sound of Mrs Blitzstein defiantly nailing her colours to the mast. “I am Jewish! I bake cakes.”’ Lionel also experienced music from his violin tutor in which he studied for a very short while. Lionel was ‘evacuated many times but disliked the countryside, so ran away’ (2011 pg 20) on several occasions. He was finally evacuated to Wales, where he learnt to play the piano and learnt his own style of notating.
In 1960, Bart’s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Oliver Twist’ hit the west end stage at the New Theatre on June 30th.
The story follows the tale of an orphan, born into the workhouse. Oliver is sold to an undertaker. Whilst here, he sings ‘Where is Love’ which was the first song of the show that Lionel wrote and the other songs came about because of this one. Oliver then escapes to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger. Dodger then introduces him to Fagin, who has lodgings locally and looks after the children, whilst they work for him as pick pockets. Fagin takes Oliver in and teaches him the trade. However on his first outing, he is unjustly arrested for stealing a ‘gentleman’s purse’. The gentleman, Mr Brownlow believes Oliver’s story and takes him into his home.
Although Oliver seems to have found happiness, Bills Sykes, who works for Fagin doesn’t trust Oliver to keep quite. Nancy, Bill’s lover reluctantly helps bring Oliver back to Fagin, but finds it hard to live with what she has done. The Song, ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ where she admits her undying Love for Bill, Lionel comments:
‘I suppose (it) is about my own dying love.’ (2011, pg 89) She risk’s everything to help Oliver escape Bill and Fagin and pays the ultimate …show more content…
sacrifice.
In the 1960s, Musical theatre in Britain became part of mainstream English theatre.
‘British musicals were tapping into a social-awareness movement.’ (2009 pg 165) Charles Dickens is a very social aware novelist and Oliver Twist is one of many novels to address social matters prominent in the 19th Century, when Dickens was writing. The story of Blitz! Also focuses on the society of the time. Both shows make a social comment on the times. However the production of Oliver ran for 2618 performances, his longest running musical, yet Blitz ran for less than a quarter of the performances, running for 568 performances. Blitz was less popular when it came out partly because the audiences it drew in all remembered very vividly the horrors and tragedy of the Blitz.
The show also lacked ‘some undeniably catchy songs -- even an homage to food’ that capture the heart of Oliver.
The music within both shows takes on a variety of forms. They contain ‘assorted styles – music hall for this one, synagogue for this, torch song here, pop song there’ (2011, pg 157). The show Oliver begins with an overture. The overture originates in Opera, where it allows instrumental music to create an atmosphere.
‘The main role of the overture was to provide a foretaste of what to expect (2006) However; Blitz doesn’t open with an overture. It doesn’t allow the audience the ‘opportunity for anticipation and recognition.’ (2008) Instead it throws the audience straight into the centre of the action, as the show opens with air-raid sirens.
‘Less than 20 years after the real thing (it) could still chill the blood. ' (2011, pg 123)
Another form of instrumental music found within the musical is the underscore.
In both shows, Lionel appears to use underscoring to progress the story. Within Oliver, underscores are used in ‘Oliver’s Escape’ and ‘On the Bridge’ Two moments of tension in the show, where the music helps to build that atmosphere. Similarly in Blitz, underscore is used throughout an air-raid sequence and for the purpose of a ‘knees up’
Where Oliver begins with an Overture, Blitz does not, and where Blitz contains an entr’acte, Oliver does not. Entr’acte means between the acts and this idea again was drawn out from opera. The entr’acte works in the same way that an overture does; reflecting and recapturing an atmosphere, allowing the audience to travel back to a time and place, before the action starts. However, Oliver does not have this time, instead it jumps straight in with the rousing song: ‘Oom Pah Pah’, a big chorus number that sets the scene and takes you straight back into the heart of the
show.
There are lots of people that can sing a song in a musical and the characters involve, can change the impact a particular song has. ‘Songs are used to create an emotional high; to create and portray emotions that dialogue can’t.’ (2009) A solo song can be used for a number of reasons. It can develop a character, progress the plot, or simply used as a transition. There are a few solos in Blitz, most of which develop characterisation: ‘Duty calls’ sung by Harry and ‘Tell me’ by Mrs Blitzstein. However Oliver has many more solo songs, developing characters, in ‘My Name’, and ‘Reviewing the Situation’ and in transition and furthering the story in ‘Boy for Sale’. There are also solo songs, that are reinforced by lines, of chorus’ repeated by the ensemble. For example, ‘Leave it to the Ladies’, sung by Elsie, of ‘Our Hotel’, sung by Mrs Blitzstein. Likewise, ‘Oom Pah Pah’, sung by Nancy, or ‘Be Back Soon’ sung by Fagin and the kids.
Duets develop relationships between central characters, for example ‘Tell Her, Tell Him’ between Mr Locke and Mrs Blitzstein or ‘Opposites’, between Carrie and Georgie. Similarly, in Oliver, ‘Consider Yourself’ shows the instant friendship between Oliver and Dodger. Then there are chorus numbers, which are high impact numbers and impressive to watch, because there are so many people about the stage. In both the shows, there are two choruses, the adult chorus and the child chorus. The two in Oliver are almost completely separate, only coming together for ‘Consider Yourself’ which makes the first scene in London appear very chaotic as it is the biggest number. However in Blitz, the cast spends much more time together, with ‘our Hotel’ and ‘Is This Gunna Be a Wedding’ along with others as full cast, and separate numbers for the kids: ‘Mums and Dads’ and numbers without the kids, including ‘Who’s This Geezer Hitler.’
The shows also have a small number of reprises in them. When numbers are reprised in different acts, such as ‘We’re Going to the Country,’ or ‘Fine Life,’ they tend to have a unifying effect, bringing the story together. However, when it is used for ‘Is This Gunna Be a Wedding’ it tends to be more about emphasising and recapturing the emotion created before.
One particular style of song that is often used in musicals, that originates in Opera is a Patter Song, or List song, which was made famous in operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. There are many list songs in Blitz, but perhaps the most obvious are Mrs Blitzstein’s solos: ‘Bake a Cake’ which lists all the situations where baking is appropriate, or ‘Tell me’ where she is listing all the things she wants her husband’s help with. Similarly in Oliver, there are many uses of the song, ‘Reviewing the situation has moments of it, when Fagin lists the things he could have, or ‘Fine Life’ where Nancy, Bet and the boys list the things they enjoy in life.
The characters within the show are consistent with those found in most musicals. In Blitz there is a central love pair: Georgie and Carrie, then a love triangle with Elsie, Harry and Joyce. Although Oliver doesn’t have a central love pair, the love triangle consists of Bill, Nancy and Oliver, and then there is a secondary love couple with Mr Bumble and Widow Corney. The secondary couple provide light entertainment from the seriousness of the main story, with songs like: ‘I Shall Scream.’
Both Shows have a confident, a wise character that the others can confide in. In Blitz this character is unquestionably Mrs Blitzstein, as she opens her house to all who need shelter. In Oliver this character is Fagin, as again, he takes in Oliver off the street and keeps him safe. There is also a ‘baddy’. The ‘baddies’ create tension and a sense of fear and anxiety because you don’t know what they might do, coming between the main lovers. In Oliver this part is undoubtably Bill Sykes, who kills Nancy, coming between her and Oliver, and in Blitz, the character is much tamer, but it is Mr Locke, trying to come between his son Georgie and Carrie. Oliver doesn’t strictly have a comic character, because the nature of the tale is so serious, however to try and lighten the story of Blitz, because it was so prominent in people’s memories, Mr Nearmiss, is a comic character, running in and telling stories in a comic fashion.
Bart, in a private memory about Oliver, said:
‘In a way they’re all searching for love.’ (2011, pg 97) This is a theme that everyone can relate to as it is something that we all journey to find at one stage in our lives. Other themes that the shows portray include love conquering all. In Blitz, the story, ‘like Romeo and Juliet … revolves around two feuding families’ (2011, pg 123) and Georgie and Carrie are wedded, despite the family feud, Georgie’s missing kidney and Carrie’s blindness. A similar theme is present in Oliver, however the love is not a romantic love. Instead in Oliver, it its Nancy’s maternal love for Oliver that conquers all, leading to Oliver’s safety.
The shows also speak about cultural or social clashes. The feud between the two families in Blitz is built upon culture. Mr Locke and Mr Nearmiss are very patriotic English men, who don’t like anyone who isn’t British. However the Blitzstein’s along with many in the community were Jewish. Whereas Oliver looks at social clashes, and the large divide between the rich and the poor.
Overall, I think that Oliver is a much more successful show than Blitz because ‘the score as a whole … has become entwined in our DNA’ (2011, pg 98) Everyone knows at least a song from Oliver, however there are no songs in Blitz that people know, when you talk about the show. The catchy rhymes and tunes in Oliver, along with his ‘love for music-hall and of course the cockney speech rhymes’ (2009, pg 165) gelled seamlessly together to create Oliver, something that he never managed to achieve again.
Bibliography:
Stafford, D and C: Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be: The Lionel Bart Story: Omnibus Press, 2011
Holdsworth A: Cosi Pan Tutte Overture: Programme Notes for BHSO Performance: 2006)
Hischack T: The Oxford Companion To The American Musical: Theatre, Film and Television: Oxford Press, 2008 Darrick Wood A-level Musical Theatre Pack: 2009
Inverne. J : The Faber Pocket Guide to Musicals: Faber and Faber, 2009
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lionel-bart-mn0000636855
Lionel Bart created a number of musicals and popular songs during the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote songs for Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and many others. Amongst his series of musicals, he created the title musicals ‘Blitz!’ and the award winning show ‘Oliver!’
Bart’s family fled Galicia, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Russian’s invaded in 1914. ‘A quarter of a million decided it was time to up sticks’ (2011, pg 13) and Bart’s parents travelled with their eldest child.
Lionel Bart was born Lionel Begleiter in London’s East End, to Morris and Yetta. He was their youngest child, …show more content…
although sources appear to disagree on the size of the family, ranging from an article in 1942 in the Radio times stating there were 17 Begleiter’s; ‘We 15 kids’; to the Daily mail in 1995, stating he came from a much smaller family; ’I was the youngest of seven’. Lionel’s father ‘was a tailor, with his workshop in a shed at the bottom of the garden’ (2011, pg 11). Willy Goldman worked for ten weeks for Morris Begleiter in 1924. He describes Morris as a ‘lazy, self-important bully’ who enjoyed ‘betting on horses, drinking brandy and taking vapour baths.’ (2011, pg13) Despite Morris’ attitude, Lionel was indulged by his mother and sisters who allowed his huge self esteem to flourish.
There were many stages to poverty. The Jewish poverty in the East end, in which Lionel grew up with, created a greater sense of community. One of Bart’s colleges at unity theatre, where he worked as set painter, as his first job in a theatre, remembers ‘having to go with his mum to the Jewish Board of Guardians in order to plead their case for a soup kitchen.’ (2011, pg 1)
When a person has been brought up in straitened circumstances they can adopt a range of attitudes towards their childhoods. Some boast about their poverty, over exaggerating their past experiences. Others may become exceedingly optimistic about situations or bitter and angry towards poverty. At one stage or another, Bart adopted all of these throughout his career, whether that was throwing himself on the mercy of the court in his bankruptcy hearing in 1972, or writing ‘Blitz!’; ‘the show about his wartime childhood.’ (2011 pg 15)
Blitz looks at the stories of two families; the Blitzstein’s and the Locke’s and ‘When the blitz erupts around them they are all forced to make drastic changes to their way of life’.(2009 pg 35) The two families, who happen to own neighbouring stalls, don’t have a very good relationship with each other. This relationship is established at the beginning of the show, with the song: ‘Tell her, Tell him’ sung by Mrs Blitzstein and Mr Locke. Lionel recalls:
‘my mum and dad had this love – hate thing … I was like the go-between. It was ‘tell him this’ or ‘tell her that’, (2011 pg 14)
However before we are introduced to the main characters, we meet the community in an air-raid shelter. The different people that were brought together because of the Blitz, arguably the most important of these are the children, who play a prominent role in the environment, bringing vibrance and life to scenes. As the story begins to unfold, news spreads through the shelter that some of the characters within the community have died in an air-raid, the parents of a young boy, Tommy.
‘Death came into the drama early in the first act’. (2011, pg 16) This can be linked to the death of his grandmother, which happened when he was four and he was playing at her bedside when she died.
The character of Mrs Blitzstetin ‘embodies so much of the spirit of his own mother’ (2011 pg 123) recalls Joan Maitland, who wrote the book Blitz! She goes on to remark how to make one particular scene in the underground shelter stand out; when the cast turn to the wireless for news and comfort Vera Lynn was recruited to record ‘The Day after Tomorrow’; a song Bart wrote to sound like a war time hit. As the plot thickens, Mrs Blitzstein and Mr Locke have to deal with the fact their children are falling in love with each other.
The everyday life is captured in each setting, but one of the most prominent settings from Lionel’s childhood, is their local marker: Petticoat Lane. There were ‘clothing and fabric stalls, and the bedding and curtain stalls, in front of the shops selling latkes, lox, herrings, you could watch escapologists and crockery jugglers, fortune-tellers and weight-guessers. There were barrel organists, cross dressing skirt dancers and Wilson, Keppel and Betty clones who’d … do their soft shoe shuffle’ (2011, pg 16) and much, much more. The chaos and business the description creates is very well translated to the stage at the beginning of act two, with the number ‘Petticoat Lane’.
Bart goes on to remember being ‘brought up on all the traditional kids’ games … and we could play in the streets safely’ (2011 pg, 15) This is seen throughout Blitz, especially in act two where the children sing some traditional nursery rhymes, including ‘It’s raining, It’s pouring’.
Everyone has their own battles to overcome, however after many humorous, and some tragic situations, they all find individual peace.
In the East end, there ‘were 30 to 40 Yiddish theatres to choose from.’ (2011 pg 16) Bart remembers how his ‘mum and dad used to take me to a place called the Yiddish Theatre.’ (2011 pg 17) Alongside the street songs and nursery rhymes, Bart’s life was filled with many forms of music. There were the performers in the market, ‘pubs had sing-alongs … the core repertoire – a mixture of light classics, war time favourites and music-hall novelties’. (2011, pg 18)
It was not only in social environments where Lionel experienced music. He remembers: ‘My mother used to sing lullabies’ (2011, pg 18) He also experienced music on long coach journeys. One such song he created within Blitz. ‘Mum’s and Dad’s’ is a song built upon counter melodies; tunes that are heard as melodies in their own right, but can also be sung together. It ‘is a coach party song … this side of the coach are the mums, the side’s the dad’s’ (2011, 128).
Lionel’s childhood was full of Jewish music.
‘I used to go to the synagogue with my dad ….. I loved the music (2011, pg 18). Jewish music was heard everywhere; in theatres, music shops, and on the wireless. Jewish music in America had ‘absorbed, adopted and stole’ (2011, pg 18) elements of jazz, ragtime and blues. Cole Porter, the singular success within musical theatre not to come from a Jewish background, ‘admitted the secret of writing a hit tune was to ‘… write a Jewish tune.’’ (2011 pg 18) Within Lionel’s musical Blitz, there are numerous modes and rhythms of the synagogue. In ’Bake a Cake’ the use of the flattened fifth at the very start, sometimes heard in the synagogue as the sound of the rams horn, ‘is the sound of Mrs Blitzstein defiantly nailing her colours to the mast. “I am Jewish! I bake cakes.”’ Lionel also experienced music from his violin tutor in which he studied for a very short while. Lionel was ‘evacuated many times but disliked the countryside, so ran away’ (2011 pg 20) on several occasions. He was finally evacuated to Wales, where he learnt to play the piano and learnt his own style of notating.
In 1960, Bart’s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Oliver Twist’ hit the west end stage at the New Theatre on June 30th.
The story follows the tale of an orphan, born into the workhouse. Oliver is sold to an undertaker. Whilst here, he sings ‘Where is Love’ which was the first song of the show that Lionel wrote and the other songs came about because of this one. Oliver then escapes to London, where he meets the Artful Dodger. Dodger then introduces him to Fagin, who has lodgings locally and looks after the children, whilst they work for him as pick pockets. Fagin takes Oliver in and teaches him the trade. However on his first outing, he is unjustly arrested for stealing a ‘gentleman’s purse’. The gentleman, Mr Brownlow believes Oliver’s story and takes him into his home.
Although Oliver seems to have found happiness, Bills Sykes, who works for Fagin doesn’t trust Oliver to keep quite. Nancy, Bill’s lover reluctantly helps bring Oliver back to Fagin, but finds it hard to live with what she has done. The Song, ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ where she admits her undying Love for Bill, Lionel comments:
‘I suppose (it) is about my own dying love.’ (2011, pg 89) She risk’s everything to help Oliver escape Bill and Fagin and pays the ultimate …show more content…
sacrifice.
In the 1960s, Musical theatre in Britain became part of mainstream English theatre.
‘British musicals were tapping into a social-awareness movement.’ (2009 pg 165) Charles Dickens is a very social aware novelist and Oliver Twist is one of many novels to address social matters prominent in the 19th Century, when Dickens was writing. The story of Blitz! Also focuses on the society of the time. Both shows make a social comment on the times. However the production of Oliver ran for 2618 performances, his longest running musical, yet Blitz ran for less than a quarter of the performances, running for 568 performances. Blitz was less popular when it came out partly because the audiences it drew in all remembered very vividly the horrors and tragedy of the Blitz.
The show also lacked ‘some undeniably catchy songs -- even an homage to food’ that capture the heart of Oliver.
The music within both shows takes on a variety of forms. They contain ‘assorted styles – music hall for this one, synagogue for this, torch song here, pop song there’ (2011, pg 157). The show Oliver begins with an overture. The overture originates in Opera, where it allows instrumental music to create an atmosphere.
‘The main role of the overture was to provide a foretaste of what to expect (2006) However; Blitz doesn’t open with an overture. It doesn’t allow the audience the ‘opportunity for anticipation and recognition.’ (2008) Instead it throws the audience straight into the centre of the action, as the show opens with air-raid sirens.
‘Less than 20 years after the real thing (it) could still chill the blood. ' (2011, pg 123)
Another form of instrumental music found within the musical is the underscore.
In both shows, Lionel appears to use underscoring to progress the story. Within Oliver, underscores are used in ‘Oliver’s Escape’ and ‘On the Bridge’ Two moments of tension in the show, where the music helps to build that atmosphere. Similarly in Blitz, underscore is used throughout an air-raid sequence and for the purpose of a ‘knees up’
Where Oliver begins with an Overture, Blitz does not, and where Blitz contains an entr’acte, Oliver does not. Entr’acte means between the acts and this idea again was drawn out from opera. The entr’acte works in the same way that an overture does; reflecting and recapturing an atmosphere, allowing the audience to travel back to a time and place, before the action starts. However, Oliver does not have this time, instead it jumps straight in with the rousing song: ‘Oom Pah Pah’, a big chorus number that sets the scene and takes you straight back into the heart of the
show.
There are lots of people that can sing a song in a musical and the characters involve, can change the impact a particular song has. ‘Songs are used to create an emotional high; to create and portray emotions that dialogue can’t.’ (2009) A solo song can be used for a number of reasons. It can develop a character, progress the plot, or simply used as a transition. There are a few solos in Blitz, most of which develop characterisation: ‘Duty calls’ sung by Harry and ‘Tell me’ by Mrs Blitzstein. However Oliver has many more solo songs, developing characters, in ‘My Name’, and ‘Reviewing the Situation’ and in transition and furthering the story in ‘Boy for Sale’. There are also solo songs, that are reinforced by lines, of chorus’ repeated by the ensemble. For example, ‘Leave it to the Ladies’, sung by Elsie, of ‘Our Hotel’, sung by Mrs Blitzstein. Likewise, ‘Oom Pah Pah’, sung by Nancy, or ‘Be Back Soon’ sung by Fagin and the kids.
Duets develop relationships between central characters, for example ‘Tell Her, Tell Him’ between Mr Locke and Mrs Blitzstein or ‘Opposites’, between Carrie and Georgie. Similarly, in Oliver, ‘Consider Yourself’ shows the instant friendship between Oliver and Dodger. Then there are chorus numbers, which are high impact numbers and impressive to watch, because there are so many people about the stage. In both the shows, there are two choruses, the adult chorus and the child chorus. The two in Oliver are almost completely separate, only coming together for ‘Consider Yourself’ which makes the first scene in London appear very chaotic as it is the biggest number. However in Blitz, the cast spends much more time together, with ‘our Hotel’ and ‘Is This Gunna Be a Wedding’ along with others as full cast, and separate numbers for the kids: ‘Mums and Dads’ and numbers without the kids, including ‘Who’s This Geezer Hitler.’
The shows also have a small number of reprises in them. When numbers are reprised in different acts, such as ‘We’re Going to the Country,’ or ‘Fine Life,’ they tend to have a unifying effect, bringing the story together. However, when it is used for ‘Is This Gunna Be a Wedding’ it tends to be more about emphasising and recapturing the emotion created before.
One particular style of song that is often used in musicals, that originates in Opera is a Patter Song, or List song, which was made famous in operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. There are many list songs in Blitz, but perhaps the most obvious are Mrs Blitzstein’s solos: ‘Bake a Cake’ which lists all the situations where baking is appropriate, or ‘Tell me’ where she is listing all the things she wants her husband’s help with. Similarly in Oliver, there are many uses of the song, ‘Reviewing the situation has moments of it, when Fagin lists the things he could have, or ‘Fine Life’ where Nancy, Bet and the boys list the things they enjoy in life.
The characters within the show are consistent with those found in most musicals. In Blitz there is a central love pair: Georgie and Carrie, then a love triangle with Elsie, Harry and Joyce. Although Oliver doesn’t have a central love pair, the love triangle consists of Bill, Nancy and Oliver, and then there is a secondary love couple with Mr Bumble and Widow Corney. The secondary couple provide light entertainment from the seriousness of the main story, with songs like: ‘I Shall Scream.’
Both Shows have a confident, a wise character that the others can confide in. In Blitz this character is unquestionably Mrs Blitzstein, as she opens her house to all who need shelter. In Oliver this character is Fagin, as again, he takes in Oliver off the street and keeps him safe. There is also a ‘baddy’. The ‘baddies’ create tension and a sense of fear and anxiety because you don’t know what they might do, coming between the main lovers. In Oliver this part is undoubtably Bill Sykes, who kills Nancy, coming between her and Oliver, and in Blitz, the character is much tamer, but it is Mr Locke, trying to come between his son Georgie and Carrie. Oliver doesn’t strictly have a comic character, because the nature of the tale is so serious, however to try and lighten the story of Blitz, because it was so prominent in people’s memories, Mr Nearmiss, is a comic character, running in and telling stories in a comic fashion.
Bart, in a private memory about Oliver, said:
‘In a way they’re all searching for love.’ (2011, pg 97) This is a theme that everyone can relate to as it is something that we all journey to find at one stage in our lives. Other themes that the shows portray include love conquering all. In Blitz, the story, ‘like Romeo and Juliet … revolves around two feuding families’ (2011, pg 123) and Georgie and Carrie are wedded, despite the family feud, Georgie’s missing kidney and Carrie’s blindness. A similar theme is present in Oliver, however the love is not a romantic love. Instead in Oliver, it its Nancy’s maternal love for Oliver that conquers all, leading to Oliver’s safety.
The shows also speak about cultural or social clashes. The feud between the two families in Blitz is built upon culture. Mr Locke and Mr Nearmiss are very patriotic English men, who don’t like anyone who isn’t British. However the Blitzstein’s along with many in the community were Jewish. Whereas Oliver looks at social clashes, and the large divide between the rich and the poor.
Overall, I think that Oliver is a much more successful show than Blitz because ‘the score as a whole … has become entwined in our DNA’ (2011, pg 98) Everyone knows at least a song from Oliver, however there are no songs in Blitz that people know, when you talk about the show. The catchy rhymes and tunes in Oliver, along with his ‘love for music-hall and of course the cockney speech rhymes’ (2009, pg 165) gelled seamlessly together to create Oliver, something that he never managed to achieve again.
Bibliography:
Stafford, D and C: Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be: The Lionel Bart Story: Omnibus Press, 2011
Holdsworth A: Cosi Pan Tutte Overture: Programme Notes for BHSO Performance: 2006)
Hischack T: The Oxford Companion To The American Musical: Theatre, Film and Television: Oxford Press, 2008 Darrick Wood A-level Musical Theatre Pack: 2009
Inverne. J : The Faber Pocket Guide to Musicals: Faber and Faber, 2009
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lionel-bart-mn0000636855