Making people laugh is the best job in the world
After selling 14,000 tickets and smashing box office records with Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick! in 2023, He’s Behind You! return 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 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.”
Cast: Matthew Baldwin, Laura Anna-Mead, Laura Buhagiar, Joe Grundy, Caitlin Swanton.Fin Walton, Chris Lane, Jordan Stamatiadis,Dame Dora Herd.
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.
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.”
Directed by Andrew Beckett
Charing Cross Theatre, The Arches, Villiers Street, London, WC2N 6NL from 23 November 2024 – 11 January 2025. Performances: Tuesday – Saturday at 7.30pm; Sunday at 6pm; Saturday at 3.00pm; Sunday at 2.00pm. Tickets from £28.00
Booking: www.jackpanto.com
Box office: 08444 930650
