Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick! is the brand new, adults-only pantomime from the team behind Above The Stag Theatre’s legendary queer Christmas shows.

Journey back in time to the tiny kingdom of Slutvia, where a prince searches for the boy of his dreams at his 21st birthday ball. But when he takes a prick in the palace rose garden, he magically wakes up in a modern world where palaces are run by the National Trust and the man of your dreams is somewhere on Grindr.

Can he defeat his wicked uncle, reclaim the throne, win his man, save his mum, establish some form of primitive democracy and still find time to catch up on 30 seasons of Drag Race and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Sublimely silly and staggeringly rude, Sleeping Beauty Takes A Prick! is a fabulous, feel-good, festive treat, bursting with big laughs, sensational songs, colourful sets and all the panto trimmings.

Praise for SLEEPING BEAUTY TAKES A PRICK!

Critics Choice: Top 10 UK pantomimes - The Stage

★★★★★
“Easily the best adult pantomime in London”

— Theatre Weekly

★★★★★
“I don’t think I have laughed so much in a theatre, ever. If you only see one panto this year, make sure it’s this”

— Box Office Radio

★★★★
“A terrifically entertaining evening. Delightfully daft”

— Gay Times

★★★★
“A filthy, festive delight. Joyous queerness. Outstanding”

— All That Dazzles


CAST

Nikki Biddington
Natalia Brown
Matthew Gent
  • Training: Bird College

    Theatre Credits Include: Swing in Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations (West End); Fairy Godmother in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Theatre Royal, Nottingham); Lead Singer in I Am Here - Oti Mabuse (UK Tour); Dynamite/1st Cover Little Inez in Hairspray (UK Tour); Florence Ballard/Suzanne in Motown: The Musical (UK Tour); Ensemble in Back To The Future (Workshop).

  • Matt trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

    He made his professional debut in the Durham panto 20 years ago as a Banana in Pyjamas and this is his first panto since.

    West End: Cabaret (Playhouse); Sweeney Todd (Adelphi); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s) and Les Misèrables (Queen’s).

    Other theatre: Jock Night (7 Dials Playhouse); Rags (Park Theatre); Queen of the Mist (Charing Cross Theatre); Spamalot (English Theatre, Frankfurt); Water Babies (Curve); Taboo (Brixton Club House); Pirates of Penzance (Hackney Empire) and Bright Lights, Big City (Hoxton Hall).

Chris Lane
  • Training: Urdang Academy.

    Credits whilst training include: featured ensemble in Ragtime, ensemble in The Drowsy Chaperone, Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick; featured singer in Wade in the Water and Paul in A Chorus Line (The BRIT School).

    Credits include: Doctor Gotswana in The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales Theatre); Lead Vocalist in various shows at Theatre Royal (P&O Cruises), Dancer in BRIT Awards 2015 and Ensemble in Duncton Wood (Union).

    Film: Spanish Soldier in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strangers Tides.

    Podcast: Get The Belt (Best Podcast Award Mainstream Media 2023)

    After Myles’ nomination for LGBTQIA+ Champion by the Black British Theatre Awards 2023 he is excited to be a part of Londons LGBTQ Panto as Zupp and is eager to have some fun with this sassy role.

  • In 2017 Chris was cast by the truly wonderful Andrew Beckett in his first panto “Snow White - Rotten To The Core” and has never looked back. He’s also never done any other panto that wasn’t written by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper- there’s something really special about these shows- they’re second to none! And no child in sight- thank god! He’s lucky enough to have since done three further pantos with the team (Mother Goose Cracks one out; Pinocchio - No Strings Attached and Dick Whittington - Another Dick In Town) It’s an absolute highlight of the year to work with this brilliant, hilarious team and to share the stage with the sublime and hysterical Matthew Baldwin. Chris is so thrilled to be invited back to this rebirth and the new life of this great tradition of adult pantomime excellence now under He’s Behind You!

    Alongside his panto work he does other stuff… like Ghosted (The Other Palace) - also written by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper and directed by Andrew Beckett.

    Theatre : Dangling (Southwark Playhouse); Distance (Rose Theatre Kingston); Tommy On Top (Above The Stag); Boom Bang-A- Bang (Above The Stag); Execution Of Justice (Southwark Playhouse); Das Ding (New Diorama Theatre); BOOM! (Bush Theatre) and All Saints (King’s Head Theatre). In addition he is a core troupe member of the internationally acclaimed, hit comedy SH!TFACED SHAKESPEARE for which he has done several No 1 Tours in the U.K as well as several seasons at The Leicester Square Theatre and a tour of Australia.

    TV: Bodies (Netflix); The Walk- In (ITV); Smothered (Sky); Coronation Street (ITV); Hollyoaks (Channel 4); The Things I See (BBC).

    Film : Shelf Life (Snapper Films); The Long Road (The Workshop Presents)

Tom Mann
Jordan Stamastiadis
Fin Walton
  • Jordan Stamatiadis is a Greek-Australian performer from Sydney.

    Training: Royal Academy of Music and New York University.

    UK Theatre Credits: Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends: A Celebration; Maria Friedman and Friends Legacy; Sex With Friends (And Other Tiny Catastrophes); Don’t Say Macbeth.

    TV Credits: Sandman S2 (Netflix).

  • Tom’s theatre credits include: Run For Your Wife & The Mating Game (The Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth); Relatively Speaking (P&O Cruises); Fanny & Stella (Above the Stag theatre); Grindr the Opera (Above the Stag Theatre), Lucky Stiff (The Union Theatre); Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of Fantasy (Asia Tour).

    He has also performed as a Lead Vocalist on numerous occasions for P&O Cruises. This year he also filmed his first television series titled: Alive: The Andes Plane Crash Disaster in which he plays the role of Nando Parrado.

    Tom is delighted to be joining the cast of Sleeping Beauty Takes a Prick after working with the “He’s Behind You” team back in 2020.

  • Fin graduated from Italia Conti in 2023 and he can't wait to make his professional debut in Sleeping Beauty Takes a Prick. He’s thrilled to be working alongside such a great company.

  • Nikki Trained at The London School Of Musical Theatre, graduating in December 2020.

    Credits Include: Faking Bad: A Parody Methsical (The Turbine Theatre); ‘Bobby Cratchit’ in Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol (The Other Palace); Lead Vocalist (Aida Cruises) and ‘Queen Rat’ in Dick Whittington: A New Dick in Town (Above the Stag).

  • Matthew’s theatrical work includes eight of our pantomimes; two seasons of family panto at the Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple; The Act, a play for one actor which he wrote with Thomas Hescott and performed at Trafalgar Studios and very notably in the nude in 46 Beacon at the Hope Theatre, Islington.

    In 2020 The Act was made into a short film starring Cyril Nri and Samuel Barnett, who is in many ways a better version of Matthew Baldwin.

    Screen work includes Riviera (Sky Atlantic); the Michael Winterbottom movie Greed (BBC); short film The Dark Room opposite David Mitchell and Miles Jupp; EastEnders (BBC) and The Crown (Netflix).

    As a writer Matthew and Tom Hescott created The Act (see above) and wrote Outings, which enjoyed a successful run at Edinburgh featuring Simon Callow, Mark Thomas, Jim Davidson and many others. It also toured and was performed at the Lyric Theatre in the West End. Matthew also wrote “I Miss the War” - a monologue for Mark Gatiss’ Queers series for BBC

    Matthew served as Chairman of Above the Stag Theatre for ten years.

Ticketing Info and Group Deals


Ticket Info

  • 24th November 2023 - 13th January 2024

  • 50 tickets at £25 or under at every show! booking fees and restoration levy apply

  • Book 6 tickets and receive a free bottle of prosecco!

    There is a £2.50 booking fee charged on phone and internet orders and a £0.50 restoration levy charged on all tickets.


Group Bookings

Book 10 tickets

10% off your entire booking

Book 15 tickets

15% off your entire booking

Book 20 tickets

15% off your entire booking
+
Booker goes free!

Want to book a group larger than 20 people? Email us at groupfun@sleepingbeautytakesaprick.com!

Email or call Charing Cross Box Office:
groupfun@sleepingbeautytakesaprick.com
08444 930 650
(Phone lines open 16:00 - 20:00, Monday to Saturday).

Box office at theatre open to personal callers from one hour before the curtain time for every performance.

Group discounts available on all pricing levels accept ‘Crown Jewels Package’.


Creative Team

  • He’s Behind You was founded to bring alternative, adult pantomime into the West End. It is a collaboration between the creative team behind London’s best-loved adult pantomime series and producer Oli Sones. Oli has produced A Chorus Line at the London Palladium; Wasted at the Southwark Playhouse; 46 Beacon at The Hope Theatre and Trafalgar Studios; Another America and Dark Tourism at the Park Theatre. He was associate producer on Taken at Midnight at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has produced major musicals in Singapore, Malaysia, Monaco, Tel Aviv and Slovenia and the international tour of Joan Collins Unscripted. He has produced cabaret shows in London and New York.

Producer

  • For over a decade, Jon and Martin’s pantomimes for adults have sold out every performance. They have also written two comic musicals and a play. Jon was the lead writer on Cinderella: A Drag Pantomime at Trafalgar Studios starring RuPaul’s Drag Race star Baga Chipz. It was voted Studio 1 Show of the Decade in an online poll. He wrote an acclaimed episode of Mark Gatiss’ BBC anthology series Queers, and his new play Animal, developed with Josh Hepple, was shortlisted for the 2020 Papatango Prize and the 2021 Through The Mill prize.

Writers

Composer

  • Jon Bradfield co-wrote, and wrote the songs for, Above The Stag Theatre’s acclaimed long-running series of queer adult pantomimes, and his other collaborations with Martin Hooper include the sell-out musical He Shoots, He Scores; Stonewall-era drama A Hard Rain; and for December 2022, Ghosted: Another F***ing Christmas Carol (The Other Palace, London). Jon wrote Missing Alice for the BBC and the Old Vic, part of Mark Gatiss’ Queers series, with Rebecca Front as Alice. He was the lead writer on the West End drag panto Cinderella starring Drag Race UK finalist Baga Chipz. He wrote the forthcoming TV movie Romantic Friction which will be distributed globally in 2023. His play Animal, developed with disability activist and equality trainer Josh Hepple, won the inaugural Through The Mill Prize, was shortlisted for the Papatango Prize, and will be produced in spring 2023 by the Park Theatre, London and Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester.

Director

  • Andrew Beckett was Associate and then Artistic Director at Above The Stag Theatre, helming a string of hits including nine pantomimes, an award-winning production of Grindr: The Opera (Best New Musical, Off West End Awards) and a revival of Jonathan Harvey’s Boom Bang-A-Bang. At Theatre Royal Windsor he directed Handbagged, Dial M for Murder, Relatively Speaking and Joking Apart, and he has directed classic plays of all genres for Paul Taylor Mills’ rep seasons in Sidmouth.

Choreographer

  • Work as Director/Choreographer in the West End, includes: Santa’s Christmas Adventure (Ambassadors) Gyles Brandreth’s Zipp! (Duchess); Girls Night Out (Victoria Palace); Elvis the Musical (Astoria, Prince of Wales and Piccadilly); Return to the Forbidden Planet (Cambridge); Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey (Lyric); Lily Savage in Snow White (Victoria Palace); Tribute to the Blues Brothers (Whitehall); Jack to a King (Ambassadors); The Pocket Dream (Albery); James and the Giant Peach (Sadler’s Wells); The Rivals (Boulevard); Wild Oats (National); La Cenerentola (Royal Opera House); various Gilbert and Sullivan operas (Sadler’s Wells and Savoy) and as Resident Director: Hello, Dolly! (Drury Lane); Peggy Sue Got Married (Shaftesbury); plus many galas and concerts at the Palladium, Prince Edward, Strand, Savoy and Drury Lane including: The Ken Dodd Show, Jerry Herman’s Broadway, with Angela Lansbury and Bill Kenwright’s Any Dream Will Do concert, with eight Josephs, all at the Palladium.

    Worldwide includes: The Mikado in Brisbane, Sydney and LA; Elvis the Musical in Vancouver and Sydney; Starlight Express in Japan and Australia plus countless trade shows from Iceland to the Bahamas and many musicals directed on Cruise Ships from Norway to Western Samoa.

    She has directed/choreographed varied straight productions in UK, ranging from Peter Terson’s Strippers to Agatha Christie’s only comedy, Afternoon at the Seaside, and has worked on many Kenwright productions, including Can’t Smile Without You - the UK tour based on Barry Manilow’s music and Laughter in the Rain with the music of Neil Sedaka and has been with the Dreamboats and Petticoats creative team from the start both on the UK tours and at the Savoy, Wyndhams and the Playhouse all in London.

    Television/film work includes: Stravinsky’s Renard the Fox, Lenny Beige, Morecambe and Wise, Julie and the Cadillacs and Prick Up Your Ears.

Designer

  • David has designed the sets and costumes for plays, musicals and other spectacles at venues of every scale from International arena tours to studio theatres via prominent international and regional producing houses and the West End.

    Some of his many credits include: Mannen fra La Mancha (Det Norske Teatret, Oslo),

    Scandinavian Arena productions of; Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair, Fame, Grease, Chess and Saturday Night Fever; Saturday Night Fever (UK Tours, London, Johannesburg, Madrid, and Spanish Tour directed by Arlene Phillips and Karen Bruce); Little Shop Of Horrors, Sister Act and Legally Blonde (Aberystwyth); Strictly Come Dancing The Professionals (Original UK tour); Ice Age Live - A Mammoth Adventure (Arena World Tour); The UK touring Production of ‘Robin Cousins’ ICE’; Thirteen World touring arena productions for ‘Holiday on Ice’, She Loves Me and The Clockmaker’s Daughter (Landor Theatre); Fanny and Stella; Pet Shop Boys’ Closer to Heaven and Maurice (directed by James Wilby); Grindr the Opera , Beautiful Thing, Andy Bell’s Torsten -The Beautiful Libertine, Romance Romance and Buyer and Cellar, as well as all the pantomimes at Above The Stag Theatre.

    Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on Tour, (UK Arena production directed by Anthony Van Laast); The Last Five Years, Associate designer, The Other Palace (directed by Jason Robert Brown). Mad as Hell (Costume designer, Jermyn St Theatre).

    National Touring productions of End of the Rainbow, Little Shop Of Horrors and Our House.

    High Fidelity (Turbine Theatre), Honest Amy (directed by Kathy Burke); Bang Bang by John Cleese, (Mercury Theatre and UK Tour); Dick Whittington, Snow White, (GBPA best costume design nominee); Jack and the Beanstalk, Oliver, and Cinderella (Mercury Theatre Colchester; Hair in Concert (London Palladium).

    Recent productions include Pippin (Charing Cross Theatre); Heathers The Musical ( Theatre Royal Haymarket, National tour and The Other Palace)’ The Pleasure Garden (Offie 2021 Award winner, Best set design); But I’m A Cheerleader (Turbine Theatre); Su Pollard’s ‘’Oh.. And Another Thing’’, an evening with Su Pollard (Touring show); The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me (Wimbledon Studio theatre); Rose by Martin Sherman, starring Dame Maureen Lipman (Hope Mill, Park theatre and West End run).

Costume Designers

  • Sandy Lloyd has enjoyed a host of fascinating careers ranging from governmental positions to club night promoting. She started out in Fashion in the 80s falling into the world of Costume thirty years later and hasn’t looked back since.

    She works extensively on TV and Film productions from big budget Marvel films to smaller TV projects. All too numerous to mention.

    She met Robert Draper on the set of “Peterloo” and they have been best of Friends ever since.

    When Sandy was asked to design a pantomime for the Above the Stag theatre she pulled in her bestie and they’ve been creating costumes together ever since.

    The costume odd-couple have been working together ever since and are delighted to be working with the wonderful creative team once again.

    Robert Draper started his professional theatre career at the tender age of 11 in the child chorus of “Evita”. Having caught the ‘theatre bug’; he then trained at Middlesex University and went on to perform in various pantomimes and musicals.

    His panto experience has seen Robert perform in practically every role, from chorus boy, through principle boy to Baddie and even Dame! Alongside his theatre performances Robert also spent 15 years performing cabaret in pubs and clubs around the UK and abroad.

    Robert trod the boards for over 25 years before deciding that it was time for a change and he moved backstage. He’d always had a passion for costume and during his performing career was often to be found in the costume department, helping out and generally getting in the way!

    These days Robert works in the costume department across TV, Film (Call the Midwife, Peterloo, Downton Abby, Scoop, Us, Roadkill) and Theatre (Thoroughly Modern Millie national tour, Officer and Gentleman - the Musical national tour).

    Robert has created costumes for various Pantomimes, including many at the ‘Above the Stag’ theatre and he is thrilled to be working with the same creative team once again, especially as designing and making Matthew Baldwin’s Dame outfits is one of his upmost pleasures! Oh yes it is….!

Lighting Designer

  • Jamie trained at RWCMD and has been nominated for a Knight of Illumination Award, a BroadwayWorld Award and five Offie Awards for Best Lighting Design.

    Lighting designs include: The Last Five Years (West End & International Tour); Jellyfish (National Theatre); RIDE (Leicester Curve & Southwark Playhouse); Word-Play (Royal Court Theatre); Something Rotten!, Suddenly Last Summer, Sister Act (English Theatre Frankfurt); Manic Street Creature, The Last Five Years, Strike, Beast, Klippies (Southwark Playhouse); Octopolis, Nineteen Gardens, Either, Paradise, Yous Two (Hampstead Theatre); Kes (Octagon Theatre & Theatre by the Lake); The Barber of Seville (Nevill Holt Opera); Kinky Boots (New Wolsey Theatre); That Face (Orange Tree Theatre); Something in the Air (Jermyn Street Theatre); SUS, Never Not Once, Gently Down The Stream, Alkaline (Park Theatre); Moonlight and Magnolias (Nottingham Playhouse); Kiss Me Kate (Leicester Curve); RIDE, Mythic (Charing Cross Theatre); Whose Planet Are We On?, Cracked and Remembrance (Old Vic Theatre); Anna Karenina (Silk St. Theatre); Le Grand Mort (Trafalgar Studios); Beauty and the Beast and Absurd Person Singular (Watford Palace Theatre); The Beat of our Hearts (Northcott Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (The Mill at Sonning); To Dream Again (Theatr Clwyd & Polka Theatre); Head Over Heels and Vincent River (Hope Mill Theatre); Blood Orange, The Moor and Where Do Little Birds Go? (Old Red Lion Theatre); One Who Wants to Cross, Checkpoint Chana, Quaint Honour, P’yongyang, We Know Where You Live and Chicken Dust (Finborough Theatre); Reared, Screwed and Grey Man (Theatre 503); Dick Whittington, The Morning After, Pinocchio, Mother Goose, Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club, Snow White, He Shoots! He Scores!, Bitches Ahoy! and Beauty on the Piste (Above The Stag).

    Associate lighting designs include:

    Frozen and SIX (West End & International); INK, The Night of the Iguana, The Starry Messenger and Bitter Wheat (West End); Albion, The Hunt, Three Sisters and Machinal (Almeida Theatre); Piaf (Buenos Aires); The Phantom of the Opera (Thessaloniki); Stumped (Hampstead Theatre).

Musical Director/Orchestrator

  • Aaron has received ten Off-West End Award Nominations for Best Musical Director and was nominated for a Broadway World Award for The Apple Tree (Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre)

    Favourite credits as Musical Director include: Betty Blue Eyes (Union Theatre); Romance Romance, Fanny & Stella, [title of show] and Grindr The Opera (Above The Stag Theatre); Metropolis, The Kissing Dance, Wonderful Town and A Little Night Music (Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre); Into the Woods (The Cockpit); My Land’s Shore (Theatr Soar); It’s a Bird...It’s A Plane...It’s Superman (Leicester Square Theatre); The Ripper’s Five (Theatro Technis); Naked Boys Singing (King’s Head Theatre and Garden Theatre); Sondheim by Sondheim (Roundhouse); Next Thing You Know (Garden Theatre), Dorian: Son Of Love and Death (The Other Palace) and Soho Boy (Drayton Arms Theatre).

    Credits as Orchestrator include: Romance Romance, Grindr The Opera, Metropolis, Into The Woods, 110 In The Shade and My Land’s Shore.

    Cabaret credits include: Mountains – A Musical Journey (St. James Studio and Jermyn Street Theatre); An Evening of Sondheim (Lauderdale House); Don’t Ask the Lady! (Crazy Coqs); Dorothy and Friends (Crazy Coqs) and Tim McArthur and Friends (Hippodrome Casino).

    Recording credits include: Grindr The Opera and The Pleasure Garden (Jay Records).

Sound Designer

  • Keegan Curran has worked in theatre and live events for many years. Since graduating from The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School as a Composer and Sound Designer in 2014, Keegan has undertaken multiple Sound Designs, regionally, in The West End and Internationally as well as Production Management, Teaching and Production Sound Work across film, television and theatre.

    Previous Sound Designs:

    Jean Paul Gaultier's Fashion Freak Show (International Tour); Julius Caesar and The Duchess Of Malfi (Fourth Monkey; Olivier Award Winning Baby Reindeer (Bush Theatre); Our Country's Good (Tobacco Factory Theatres); Oliver Award Winning Rotterdam (Theatre503 and Trafalgar Studios); My World Has Exploded A Little Bit (Tristan Bates Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe); Infinity Pool (Plymouth Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe); The Blues Brothers: Xmas Special (West End); Last Thursday (Prime Theatre); Trip the Light Fantastic (Theatre West/Bristol Old Vic); Living Quarters (Tobacco Factory/SATTF); 140 Million Miles' (Tobacco Factory/The Traverse); Where we are (Theatre Royal Bath); Blue Stockings and The Winter’s Tale (Tobacco Factory); The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (The Redgrave); Belarus Free Theatre’s Dogs Of Europe and King Stakhs Wild Hunt (Barbican Theatre); Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig (JW3).

  • Film / TV

    Prince Andrew The Musical (C4), Showman (C4), Tomorrow Morning, A Family Affair, Beast/Type/Song, The Hermit

    Theatre

    Unbelievable (Criterion Theatre), Showman (Apollo Theatre), Dirty Dancing (Dominion Theatre/UK Tour), The SpongeBob Musical (UK Tour / Southbank), Death Note (London Palladium / Lyric Theatre), Babies (Lyric Theatre), Treason (UK Tour / Alexandra Palace), Tarantino Live (Riverside Studios), Chess/Kinky Boots/Treason (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Choir Of Man (USA Tour), Respect (UK Tour), Starcrossed (Wilton's Music Hall), Blippi (Lyric Theatre), Disruption / On The Ropes (Park Theatre), Cinderella (Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Girl On The Train / Million Dollar Quartet (Barn Theatre), Vanara (Hackney Empire), Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith), American Idiot (West End), Footloose (West End / UK Tour), Dark Sublime / Silk Road (Trafalgar Studios), Our House (UK Tour), The Pirate Queen (London Coliseum), One Man Two Guvnors (Derby / Hornchurch), A Midsummer Night’s Dream / The Importance Of Being Earnest (UK Tours), The Wizard Of Oz (Blackpool Winter Gardens), Glory Ride / Soho Cinders / Mythic / The Knowledge (Charing Cross Theatre)

    As Associate Casting Director :

    My Best Friend’s Wedding (UK Tour), The Man. The Music The Show (Hugh Jackman Arena Tour), Jean Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show (Southbank / World Tour), Thriller Live (Lyric Theatre), Starlight Express (Germany), Cruel Intentions / Noise Boys (Edinburgh

Casting Director