The People
Here are the people involved in bringing this project to life.
The recording was done by Joe and Nikki Davison, Auburn Jam Studios 
Artwork by Rebecca Pitt Creative Ltd 
Promotional video/photography by Stuart Hull.
Rosemary Ashe
Geoffrey Norton
Rosie has appeared in many West End productions including: Carlotta, the Prima Donna in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘The Phantom of The Opera’, Madame Thenardier in ‘Les Miserables’, Cunegonde in ‘Candide’, Widow Corney in ‘Oliver!’, Hortense in ‘The Boyfriend’, Forbidden Broadway, Felicia Gabriel in ‘The Witches of Eastwick’ (for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical), Miss Andrew, the nasty nanny in ‘Mary Poppins’, Lottie Grady in ‘When We Are Married’ & Grandma Mole in ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 & ¾’.
For more information visit her website: www.rosemaryashe.com
Kirsty Bennett
Ivor Gauntlett
Kirsty originally trained at Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music.
Her vocal career has involved operetta (G and S roles including: Ruth, Fairy Queen, Buttercup etc), cabaret (including Songs of Kleptomania – European classics in new translations) and Musical theatre (Rose in Gypsy, Carrie in Diary of a Nobody, Catherine in Tomorrow Morning), and she particularly enjoys working on new and devised pieces, having first met Mark Bunyan when performing in his True Romances in 2000.
As a director, she works regularly for small opera companies and touring theatre groups, and teaches music and drama to SEND students.
kirsty.bennett@ymail.com 07773 863836
Jay Bryce
Mrs Arkell Smith
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Theatre Includes: Officer Boxhall/understudied and played Isidor Strauss in TITANIC (International Tour); Heavenly Friend in CAROUSEL (English National Opera, London Coliseum); Shelly Berger in MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL (Shaftesbury Theatre, London); Father Alexander/understudy and playing ‘Dad’ roles in MAMMA MIA! (International Tour); Student/understudied and played Javert in LES MISERABLES (Queen’s Theatre, London); Ensemble/understudied and played Bill Sykes in OLIVER! (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London); Rooster in ANNIE and Sammy in BLOOD BROTHERS (both Madinat Theatre, Dubai)
Recordings Include: Vocals for Les Miserables Feature Film 2012; Oliver! (Live Cast Recording); Chess In Concert (Royal Albert Hall); Children First (Unicef); Only The Brave (World Premier Cast Recording)
Television and Film Includes: Bishop’s Constable and Ensemble in Les Miserables: 25th Anniversary Concert (O2 Arena); Chess in Concert (Royal Albert Hall); Singing Waiter in Marks and Spencer Christmas Viral (ITN Productions); Dancer in Motown: The Musical on Children In Need (BBC), Britain’s Got Talent (ITV), Let It Shine (BBC) and Diversity Presents Steal The Show (ITV)
@thejaybryce
Represented by Tanya Greep, at TMG LONDON
Mark Bunyan
Book, Music and Lyrics
Mark Bunyan’s previous musicals include JUST GOOD FRIENDS (Cockpit Theatre, 1982 “Best New Musical of 1982” City Limits), HOMES AND GARDENS (Cockpit Theatre 1984), TRUE ROMANCES (Showcased at Greenwich Theatre & Castle Theatre, Wellingborough), KEEPING MUM (Showcased Greenwich Theatre), ACHILLES IN HEELS (Landor Theatre March and November 2006) and UNBURIED TREASURES (Rosemary Branch Theatre 2010).
BEING COLONEL BARKER had three sets of annual workshops with the Musical Theatre students at the Royal Academy Of Music.
His solo cabaret at the piano, as the first out gay cabaret performer in the UK, started in October 1978 and has since been seen all round the UK, Europe and the USA.
Rose Collis
Biographer
We know Col. Sir Victor Barker, DSO and their personae thanks to their biographer, Rose Collis. Her Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment (Virago, 2001) is painstakingly researched, thoughtful, full of insight and humour, while never losing sight of the complexities of the characters and the times through which they lived.
As well as a biographer (including Nancy Spain and Coral Browne), Rose is a journalist, playwright, performer, singer, musician, producer and historian and has been a stalwart advocate for gay rights and women’s liberation since forever.
Rose Collis was involved with this project from its inception, including attending some of the workshops with musical theatre students at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Rose is now based in Seaford, East Sussex, but she continues to be an acknowledged expert on Brighton’s social history.
Rose’s contact email is rosecolliswebsite@outlook.com
Rachel Dussek
Elfrida
Rachel Dussek is a singer, actor and musician from London.
She graduated from Mountview in July 2018 with a Masters in Musical Theatre Performance.
Performance credits while training include Babe Williams in The Pajama Game and Laurey Williams in Oklahoma. Other performance credits include Maria in The Sound of Music (professional concert performance), The Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, and ensemble roles in Rent and La Bohème. Last summer she completed a four month UK and Ireland tour of David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny with Heartbreak Productions, and was due to do a three month tour of The Great Gatsby this summer, which has now been postponed to summer 2021.
David George Harrington
Musical Director
David is a Composer/Arranger and Musical Director who works and performs regularly all over the UK.
Clients include Decca Records, Warner Music Group, ITV, Katherine Jenkins, Shirley Bassey, Only Men Aloud, Aled Jones, Connie Fisher and a wide range of West End actors and singers.
He has accepted orchestral commissions and arranging work from the LPO, LCO, LSO, WNO, BBC NOW, Cory Band, with many of these having been broadcast on TV and radio, Classic FM and at the Royal Albert Hall.
David is also musical director to the UK-touring Classical Cabaret Ensemble - All That Malarkey, lectures on various courses at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and can be spotted on the piano at many cabaret shows between London and Cardiff.
Sue Kelvin
Theatre includes: Dick Whittington (Hackney Empire); Wicked (Apollo Victoria); Bar Mitzvah Boy (Gatehouse); Bette Midler…and Me (UK tour); Private Lives (Gielgud); Travelling Light, Streetcar Named Desire (National Theatre); Onassis (Novello); Fiddler on the Roof (Savoy); Chicago (Cambridge and Adelphi); Caroline or Change ((Playhouse); Berkoff's Sit and Shiver (New End and Hackney Empire); Beau Jest (Hackney Empire); her one-woman show Sophie Tucker’s One Night Stand (King’s Head Theatre and UK tour); Oliver! (Palladium); Assassins (Donmar Warehouse); Les Misérables (Palace); Rags (Bridewell Theatre); Wild, Wild Women (Orange Tree, Richmond); Hetty Feinstein’s Wedding Anniversary (New End); Annie (Aberystwyth); Teechers (Northampton); Tales My Lover Told Me (King’s Head Theatre); The Great American Backstage Musical (Basingstoke) and Hello Dolly! (UK tour).
Television and Film include: Great Expectations; Reuniting the Rubens; Song of Songs; Red Eagle; Anxiety; Funny Women – Bette Midler; I Live With Models; Love Hurts; Silent Witness; Brazen Hussies; Worst Week of My Life; The Legend of Dick & Dom; Afterlife; Love Soup; Doctor Who; Keen Eddie; Coupling; London Bridge and Red Dwarf III.
Radio includes: Jack and Millie, The Jenny Eclair Show as Co-Host.
Laura Medforth
Mrs Barker / John Hill
Laura trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School and The London Studio Centre.
Theatre includes: Caroline or Change (ATG/Playhouse Theatre); School of Rock (New London Theatre); Mr Foote’s Other Leg (Theatre Royal Haymarket); That Day We Sang (Manchester Royal Exchange); My Fair Lady (Sheffield Crucible); Betty Blue Eyes (Novello Theatre, London); Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal, Wakefield); Henna Night (Hen and Chickens Theatre); Les Misérables (Queens Theatre); Mary Poppins (UK/Ireland Tour); Acorn Antiques The Musical! (UK Tour); The Rat Pack (UK and European Tour); Snow White (Kenneth More Theatre); Oklahoma (Perth Theatre); My Fair Lady (Perth); Cinderella (Halifax) and Robin Prince Of Sherwood (Piccadilly Theatre, London).
Television includes: Doctors (BBC); Hollyoaks (Channel 4); Vera (ITV); Heartbeat (ITV); Doctors (BBC); Peak Practice (ITV); Sibling Rivalry (Double Exposure) and In Suspicious Circumstances (Granada Television).
Radio and voiceover work includes: The Birth Machine (BBC); Reasons For Dancing (BBC); If Wishes Were Changes (BBC); Language Tapes (Longmans).
Laura won the Lia Williams Cup for the most outstanding student when training at The London Studio Centre.
Damien Noyce
Valerie Barker
Damien is an Australian performer, based in London. He studied Acting at the NIDA, then Opera and Musical Theatre at the Australian National University School of Music & Penn State University School of Arts (USA).
He represented Australia in the World Championships of Performing Arts winning Overall World Champion & Gold Medals in all of his categories. In 2019 Damien was Runner Up in the London Pride’s Got Talent Cabaret final.
He has completed Young Artist Programs with Pacific Opera & the Opera Studio Melbourne. Predominately working in Opera, Musical Theatre & Cabaret, Damien has also worked in Film, TV & Session Recording. This has taken him all over the world.
Andrew Pepper
Scratch
Andrew Pepper's been propping up stages all over the shop for a wee while now. He's played a scarecrow, a Restoration fop, an American assassin, the Grinch, a mad vegan, a mad professor and the Mad Hatter (twice!). He's played Shakespeare clowns, danced with Mary Poppins and as a pantomime Dame he's flirted his way into the hearts of the good people of Chipping Norton.
His own unique brand of cabaret has seen him perform all across London with regular solo shows at Live at Zédel, The Other Palace and Wilton’s Music Hall.
He also acts regularly with the children’s mentoring charity, Scene & Heard.
James Smoker
Mrs Pearce Crouch
Training: Royal Academy of Music. Theatre roles include: Gabe Brown, School of Rock (Gillian Lynne); The Minister of the Interior, A Clockwork Orange (Action to the Word, Park Theatre, UK Tour, Australia, Hong Kong, Norway, Singapore); Montparnasse, Les Miserables (Queens); Onstage Ensemble, Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert (O2); Featured Ensemble, New Songs 4 New Shows (Lyric, The Stable); James, Unburied Treasures (Rosemary Branch); Featured Ensemble, The Thursford Christmas Spectacular; Starveling, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Latitude Festival at The National Theatre, Action to the Word); Van Helsing, Dracula (Leicester Square Arts, ATTW); Mad Dad, Constance & Sinestra and the Cabinet of Screams (Latitude/CPT, ATTW); Saturninus, Titus Andronicus (Edinburgh Festival, ATTW).
Phil Lee Thomas
Colonel Barker
Phil is a Welsh actor, singer and London cabaret stalwart.
He has appeared in the Rocky Horror Show and Brief Encounter, and latterly acting roles in productions such as ‘The Distance’.
Phil is developing his one-man Novello show, and has performed at Gala Concerts for the Ivor Novello Appreciation Bureau.
As a jazz cabaret singer, Phil is a regular at Crazy Coqs, The Pheasantry and the London Hippodrome and has been a regular guest at ‘Mark Bunyan and Friends’ at Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club.
Phil is also a producer, including ‘Mark Bunyan: 40 Years Out’ and ‘Flop! Hit Songs From Musical Misfires’”