Bedward The Musical

The dramatic and dazzling story of Alexander Bedward—preacher, visionary, and anticolonial champion of Black prophecy and power—will be brought to life by the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center on September 19 and 20, 2026.

This riveting revival of the original work by acclaimed Jamaican writer and playwright Louis Marriott explores the life, legend, and movement of the inspirational leader of the Jamaica Native Baptist Free Church in August Town, Jamaica, founded on the banks of the Hope River in 1891.

In the late nineteenth century, Jamaica, a former plantation slave colony, remained firmly under the control of the British Empire, the largest colonial empire of the modern era. Although slavery had ended, Afro-Jamaican religious traditions continued to flourish. These practices deeply unsettled the colonial elite and many white missionaries, who complained to England that formerly enslaved Africans had “Africanized Christianity.”

Born around 1848, Bedward returned to Jamaica from Panama in 1885 and joined the Native Baptist Church—the same denomination to which National Hero Paul Bogle had belonged. In 1891, he became leader of the August Town Chapel.

Located near the Hope River and its renowned mineral spring, believed to possess healing powers, the chapel attracted thousands of people from across Jamaica and overseas. They came seeking healing and inspiration from a preacher whose sermons were boldly anticolonial, direct, and uncompromising in their challenge to injustice and oppression.

Under Bedward’s leadership, church membership grew to more than 6,000 in Jamaica and over 30,000 abroad, alarming both the established churches and the colonial authorities. In one of his most celebrated sermons, he declared:

“There is a white wall and a black wall, and the white wall has been closing around the black wall; but now the black wall has become bigger than the white wall and must knock the white wall down.”

His powerful sermons galvanized the Black rural peasantry and working classes, who formed the majority of Jamaica’s population. They also led to charges of sedition, his arrest, and the colonial government’s decision to declare him insane in an effort to silence his growing influence.

Directed by Michael Forrest and produced by the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council, this captivating historical musical brings these gripping social conflicts vividly to the stage.

The production is choreographed by Yvonne Jones-Goodridge, with Dr. Floyd Antonio and Colin Smith serving as musical directors. Featured performers include Dr. Allan Cunningham, Ricky Rowe, Jerome Russell, Malachi Smith, Rev. Horace Ward, The Jamaican Folk Revue, members of the Tallawah Mento Band, Phillip Cross, Neville Williams, Nadine Brady-Taylor, and Lena Lawrence.”It will be a treat,” says Colin Smith, founding member of the Tallawah Mento Band, “featuring traditional gospel songs and hymns arranged by the late Noel Dexter, along with a rich tapestry of Jamaican music through the years—melodies that carried messages of resistance, resilience, and liberation.”

“The audience,” he adds, “will be both enthralled and educated.”