282 shares
Left: a portrait of Golda Meir in Jerusalem s Mahane Yehuda market by Solomon Souza (Renee Ghert-Zand/TOI); Right: Dame Maureen Lipman (Jay Brooks)
LONDON A decade after penning the hit musical “Oliver!,” composer Lionel Bart was on the search for a strong female character to build a new show around, alongside his partner Roger Cook, a popular singer, songwriter and record producer.
“We both wanted to write a musical about a strong woman, and Lionel came up with the idea of Golda,” Cook tells The Times of Israel. “We both read her autobiography [“My Life”] and the music and songs just sprung off the pages for us.”
JMI s WORLD TOUR Holds Online Gala Next Month
Join JMI s WORLD TOUR for an exclusive free online evening with stop offs in Morocco, Europe, the Middle East, USA and even Canvey Island. Hosted by the broadcaster Suzy Klein, historian Sir Simon Schama and Lord Michael Grade touring the world, and meeting the stars and champions of JMI, the charity that transform lives through Jewish music.
The lost musical Next Year In Jerusalem was written in 1975 by Lionel Bart (Oliver!) and Roger Cook (Blue Mink - Melting Pot / 2 x Ivor Novello Awards / I d Like to Teach The World To Sing). The musical has never been performed and has been lost for over 40 years. But at JMI s WORLD TOUR Gala, Dame Maureen Lipman will sing the show s titular song - a heart stopping lullaby, which in the show is sung by Blume Mabovitch (Golda Meir s mother) to her young daughter Golda, who is frightened by the imminent pogrom in their Russian village.