Bashville (1983)
Adapted by David William and Benny Green from the play The Admirable Bashville by George Bernard Shaw. Music by Denis King. Lyrics by Benny Green
Following the success of a straight play version of George Bernard Shaw’s The Admirable Bashville in 1982, David William, Benny Green and composer Denis King created a musical version entitled Bashville for the Open Air Theatre’s 1983 season. This was the first musical to be staged at Regent's Park.
The cast
Christina Collier
Lydia Carew
Peter Woodward
Cashel Byron
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Donald Pelmear
Mellish
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Paul Raffield
Lucian
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Douglas Hodge
Bashville
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Walter M’plinge
Cetewayo
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James Cairncross
Lord Worthington
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Vincenzo Nicoli
Paradise
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Graham Chinn
Paradise's Trainer
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Berwick Kaler
Policeman
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Joan Davies
Adelaide Gisborne
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Robert Lister
Master of Ceremonies
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Philip Godawa
Zulu Chieftan
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Tony Gouveia
Zulu Chieftan
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Leon Herbert
Zulu Chieftan
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Anthony Wellington
Zulu Chieftan
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Julie Dawn Cole
Ensemble
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Teresa Gallagher
Ensemble
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Eric James
Ensemble
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Francesca Longrigg
Ensemble
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Abigail McKern
Ensemble
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Janet Moran
Ensemble
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Stephen Newman
Ensemble
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Stephen Rayne
Ensemble
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Jo Ross
Ensemble
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Hamilton Wilson
Ensemble
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Creative team
Programmes and Marketing
Sets
Misc Images
Reviews
Daily Telegraph
"charming, elegant, stylish and with a layer of wit to add to Shaw's own joke about Elizabethan playwrights as well as blank verse." "an evening of tuneful parody, staged by David William with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek solemnity and acted at a level of burlesque seldom encountered beyond the Players Theatre."
The Times
"this jaunty musical had found its right home in the Open Air Theatre. It has been proved over the years that the shows that thrive best at this address are those that defy the pastoral environment, and Bashville defies it with a vengeance."
Time Out
"Bashville is an escapist's dream, a midsummer night's delicacy wittly adapted by Benny Green from an obscure Bernard Shaw play and laced with pretty music (courtesy of Denis King) which is performed with contagious exuberance by an orchestra decked out in straw boaters on a flower-fringed bandstand."
Awards
Musical of the Year
Olivier Award: Nominated
Actor of the Year in a Musical
Olivier Award: Nominated