Go-Bang

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Go-Bang is an English musical comedy by Adrian Ross and F. Osmond Carr. It was produced by Fred Harris and opened at the Trafalgar Square Theatre on 10 March 1894 and ran for 159 performances. The show starred Jessie Bond, Harry Grattan, George Grossmith, Jr. (the son of George Grossmith), and dancer Letty Lind. The American child prodigy "Baby Costello" danced in the interval between acts.

Go Bang had a lot of competition in London in 1894, which saw the openings of The Chieftain by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand, His Excellency by Carr and W. S. Gilbert, The Lady Slavey by Gustave Kerker and George Dance, Little Jack Sheppard by Seymour Hicks, Mirette by André Messager and Ross, and, perhaps most importantly, The Shop Girl by H. J. W. Dam, Ivan Caryll, Lionel Monckton and Ross.

A review of the piece spoofed the loose plot (though praising it) in the following verse:

There is certainly not very much of a plot

In the musical farce of Go-Bang,

But, as someone remarks in the course of the larks,

Here the plot "doesn't matter a hang!"

For the music is light, and the dresses are bright,

And the ladies are shapely and tall;

There is dancing and song, and the skirts aren't too long,

And there's frequently no skirt at all.

[edit] Synopisis

In the story, Dam Row, the Boojam of Go-Bang had come over to England to find that he wasn't Boojam at all. The Boojam falls in love with a dancer after seeing her performance. However, he generally finds it difficulty to grasp Western ways. He returns to Go-Bang as prime minister to the new chief, a humble greengrocer who is to be formally installed as Boojam at the palace in Go Bang. He must stand under the Golden Umbrella but finds himself married by mistake to three girls in as many minutes. Fortunately, the marriage decree is revoked.