After selling 14,000 tickets and smashing box office records with Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick! in 2023, Adult panto returns to Charing Cross Theatre with a new, profoundly silly and staggeringly naughty, adult pantomime – Jack and the Beanstalk: What A Whopper!
Jack Trott is poor, gay and very horny, living with his mum on a dilapidated dairy farm 10 miles from the nearest Grindr user in the quaint Yorkshire Village of Upper Bottom. Join him on his hilarious quest to find something truly giant…
With outrageous songs, fabulous designs, glittering choreography and more innuendos than you can swallow, Jack and the Beanstalk, by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper, promises to be London’s wildest pantomime, and an unforgettably queer night out. Expect all the fun of traditional panto – just not for all the family!
Queen of adult panto Matthew Baldwin (“one of the classiest Dames in the business, Baldwin is the real deal” – Alun Hood) returns to don the demurest of wellies as Dame Dolly Trott, a disgraced former soap star-turned-dairy-farmer.
Baldwin says “Dolly is a wild narcissist who speaks as she finds, which is a northern euphemism for being f***ing rude, and she won’t take nonsense from either side of the fourth wall, so don’t be cheeky. But she has a heart of gold and deserves love – as we all do. Making people laugh is the best job in the world and I cannot wait to get back on stage at Charing Cross Theatre.”
Also returning are Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick’s good fairy and villain, who this year swap roles. Chris Lane will bring saucy mischief to Dale the friendly fairy while Jordan Stamatiadis is lascivious evil landowner Lady Fleshcreep. Further casting to be announced.
As well as appearing in four previous adult pantomimes by the same team, Chris Lane’s recent work includes Emmerdale (ITV1), Ghosted (The Other Palace) and appearances with Sh!tfaced Shakespeare.
Jordan Stamatiadis grew up in Australia and had never seen a pantomime before utterly owning it in Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick. Her UK work includes Floella Benjamin’s Coming To England and Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (West End) and she clearly has special powers of her own, having recently joined a performance of An Officer and a Gentleman at one hour’s notice.
Jack and the Beanstalk: What A Whopper! is written by Jon Bradfeld and Martin Hooper with songs by Bradfield, and directed by Andrew Beckett. Sets are by David Shields, who won Best Set Design at this year’s national Panto Awards for his spectacular Snow White at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, and whose recent work includes Heathers (West End, The Other Palace and tour), Rose (Hope Mill, Park Theatre and West End) and The Fabulist and Pippin (Charing Cross).
Baldwin, Beckett, Bradfield, Hooper and Shields were behind the string of acclaimed gay pantomimes at the now-closed Above The Stag Theatre. Bradfield says, “Working with this lovely, funny family of collaborators is the privilege of my life, as is knowing that our shows have become an unmissable annual festive tradition for many people. We started working together in the smallest of theatres and last year it was a thrill to discover there’s a bigger audience out there for our brand of big-hearted, sophisticated smut.”
Creative team
Writers Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper
Songs Jon Bradfield
Director Andrew Beckett
Set Designer David Shields
Costumes Robert Draper and Sandy Lloyd
Musical Director and Orchestrations Aaron Clingham
Choreographer Carole Todd
Produced by Oli Sones for He’s Behind You Ltd
Executive Producer Investors in Theatre
