How the theatrical impresario went from watching Oliver! as a child in the cheap seats to becoming guardian of Lionel Bart’s masterpiece
Oliver! has been part of my life ever since my aunt Jean took me to see Lionel Bart’s musÂical masterpiece in August 1960, shortly after it had opened at the New Theatre, in London. I was 13 years old and – sitting in a one-and-sixpenny gallery bench seat, for which we had queued for hours – utterly captivated.
Yet although the show had a Âbrilliant score, a sensational (if Âlittle-known) cast, and revolutionary design by Sean Kenny (an apprentice of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright), its producer, Donald Albery, had been braced for failure. Initial try-outs in Wimbledon had generated no buzz and only £145 of advance bookings for the West End run. The budget was so tight that the costumes had to be hired and Kenny was required to paint the Âbackcloth straight onto the Âtheatre’s back wall himself….