Published: 16 February, 2012
by JOSH LOEB

• The following story was relayed to me recently by a representative of the troupe putting on a production of Oliver! at the Henrietta Barnett School theatre in faraway Hampstead Garden Suburb. In 1954, when Dartmouth Park resident Ivan Berg was a young man on leave from the merchant navy, his friends introduced him to their flatmate, Lionel Bart. Both were writers and the two hit it off. Sometime later at his flat in Gloucester Place, Bart told Ivan that he was working on a musical version of Dickens’s breakthrough novel. Ivan was sceptical. But then Bart, who couldn’t read music and indeed couldn’t play the piano with more than one finger, picked out the tune and sang the lyrics of Consider Yourself, which was to become the principal hit of the smash-hit stage show Oliver! in 1960. Now, the Berg-Bart connection continues. Berg’s grandchildren Max, 10, and Oscar, eight,  who live in Kentish Town, have been cast in the junior chorus of Garden Suburb Theatre’s new production of Oliver! Mr Berg said: “Life is full of coincidences. Who would have thought that 56 years after watching Lionel pick out the notes and singing Consider Yourself, my own grandchildren would be performing that very song on stage.” The musical opens at the Henrietta Barnett School theatre on February 25 and runs until March 3. For tickets call 020 7723 6609.

• Regular readers will remember the saga of the Cochrane Theatre in Holborn, which fans fear could be demolished by its new owners, Grange Hotels. Now top Covent Garden-based choreographer Peter Schaufuss has put in a renewed bid to buy the venue, which was opened in 1964 and hosted Peter Brook’s Theatre of Cruelty season in that year. Grange Hotels say they are considering the offer and that they have yet to draw up firm plans for the theatre.

• The first newly built theatre complex in the centre of London in 30 years will open in September. The St James’s Theatre is being constructed in Victoria on the site of the Westminster Theatre, which was knocked down in 2002.