Blitz! is a
musical by
Lionel Bart. The musical, described by
Steven Suskin as "massive", was set in the
East End of
London during
the Blitz (the aerial bombings during
World War II). The story drew on Bart's childhood memories of London's Jewish East End during the Blitz and, like most musicals, centred on a romance between a young couple, in this case a
Jewish woman and a
Cockney man, although the largest role and main point-of-view character is that of Mrs. Blitztein, the young woman's mother. Steven Suskin describes it as "
Abie's Irish Rose set against the
burning of Atlanta." Bart himself described the play as "…three human stories inside an epic canvas; the major human conflict—the major plot—personifies the spirit of London and how that spirit developed during the period of the piece."