Following a smash-hit run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer and multiple sold out seasons in New York, Sally Cade Holmes and Heather Shields today announce the London premiere and cast for Recent Cutbacks’ Hold On To Your Butts, a live shot-for-shot parody of the greatest dinosaur film of all time performed by just two actors and a live Foley artist, at the Arcola Theatre this Christmas for a limited run only from Tuesday 10 Dec 2024 until Saturday 4 Jan 2025 prior to a UK Tour. Tickets are on sale now.
A wildly inventive tour-de-force of comedy, physical theatre and live Foley, Hold On To Your Butts was created by Recent Cutbacks, directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker (Puffs, Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, Off-Broadway), developed with Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer & Blair Busbee, and stars Jack Baldwin (The Play That Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, West End) and Laurence Pears (The Mousetrap, UK Tour; The Comedy About A Bank Robbery and Magic Goes Wrong, West End), with live sound and foley by Charlie Ives (A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story, Nottingham Playhouse and Alexandra Palace; Private Lives, West End). A Cappella arrangements are by Kelsey Didion.
Recent Cutbacks is a New York-based creative ensemble founded in 2014. Their critically acclaimed work sits at the intersection of comedy and theatre. They’re best known for live movie parodies that fuse humour, nostalgia, and lo-fi spectacle.
Their projects invite audiences to see the world with a newfound exuberance and remind us why we fell in love with movies, theatre, and storytelling in the first place.
Producers Sally Cade Holmes and Heather Shields said: “Hold Onto Your Butts is everything we love about theatre – it celebrates imagination, is laugh-out-loud hilarious, and reinvents a classic. After the success at Edinburgh Fringe, we’re excited to bring this ridiculously fun show to London this holiday season. The show delivers pure joy, and we can’t wait to share the laughter with audiences at the Arcola and beyond!”
Director Kristin McCarthy Parker today said: “We are over the moon to bring Butts to the Arcola Theatre and then on tour after its thrilling UK premiere at the Fringe! Recent Cutbacks’ goal has always been to inspire joy, creativity, and humour in our audiences, which feels like a perfect fit for the holiday season. Butts combines everything we love about theatre, comedy, and pop culture, and judging by its reception in Edinburgh, British audiences seem to agree”.
