Final casting is announced for the premiere of Jack and the Beanstalk: What a Whopper!, a profoundly silly and staggeringly naughty adult pantomime by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper, with songs by Jon Bradfield, directed by Andrew Beckett.
Jack and the Beanstalk: What a Whopper! (23 November 2024 to 11 January 2025 at Charing Cross Theatre) follows last year’s Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick! that smashed box office records selling 14,000 tickets to take the crown as London’s biggest adults only pantomime.
Keanu Adolphus Johnson will play the poor, gay and very horny Jack Trott. Keanu made his West End debut in Backstairs Billy, directed by Michael Grandage, and played the iconic role of Lola in Kinky Boots (Queens Theatre, Hornchurch and New Wolsey, Ipswich). This year he also appeared in Foam at the Finborough Theatre (“Johnson shines” – Theatre Weekly). He previously worked with the He’s Behind You team in Dick Whittington: A New Dick in Town, the final pantomime at Above The Stag Theatre.
Alongside the previously announced Queen of adult panto Matthew Baldwin as Dame Dolly Trott, Chris Lane as Dale the friendly fairy and Jordan Stamatiadis as lascivious evil landowner Lady Fleshcreep are:
Laura Anna-Mead (Simple Simone) won plaudits for her performance as Betty Spencer in Some Mother Do ‘Ave Em (Barn Theatre).
Laura Buhagiar (ensemble) was recently in The Enormous Crocodile (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
Joe Grundy (Reverend Tim) is making his professional stage debut. At ArtsEd he played the title role in Sweeney Todd.
Caitlin Swanton (ensemble) was Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and Lady Capulet in Romeo & Juliet (both Chapterhouse) and Sendmeafella in Cinderella and Her Naughty Buttons (Market Theatre).
Fin Walton (ensemle) returns after last year’s Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick.
Chris Lane was in Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick; Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol (Other Palace); Emmerdale; Sh!tfaced Shakespeare.
Jordan Stamatiadis was in Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick; Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends (West End); and is currently in Floella Benjamin’s Coming To England.
Dame Dolly Trott was the matriarch of a rural soap opera for 20 years until scandal and swindle finished her career and her fortune, leaving her to eke out a life on her son’s dilapidated dairy farm. Jack Trott is poor, gay and very horny, living 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: What a Whopper!, 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. 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.”
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.”
