CINDERELLA: BUTTONS UNDONE! Will Come to Charing Cross Theatre in November

He's Behind You! will return to Charing Cross Theatre with another fairytale strictly for adults. Following last year's hit Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story, the company will bring  its trademark blend of humour, queer joy and original songs to Cinderella: Buttons Undone!, a comedic deconstruction of the classic. This all-new adult pantomime swaps royal courts for  tennis courts, fairy godmothers for fortune tellers, and proves that happily ever after can take more  self-work than finding Prince Charming. Performances will run  21st November 2026 – 9th January 2027.

Set in the faded seaside resort of Lob-on-Sea, this madcap panto follows hotel maid Cindy, who puts  the "slay" into modern day slavery and whose gangster stepmother Ida Bigschitt returns to make her  and her stepsiblings Mercedes and Bentley’s lives miserable. Opportunity is served when the town’s  

inaugural tennis open is won by Smellarus’s Ivan Yassandvich, a bachelor playboy who is suddenly looking for a bride. Cindy longs for escape, Mercedes wants out of the family business, and hapless  Bentley thinks he can get a break kickstarting his party planning career with an engagement ball. 

But game, set and matchmaking go awry when Cindy’s gay and only friend Buttons slips into her shoes  - and into Ivan's bed. Determinedly single until now, all he wants is to swap ends and play again. 

Returning as the company's incomparable dame is the sublime (The Guardian) Matthew Baldwin as  Mercedes, and the excellent (Time Out) Chris Lane as her brother Bentley, a sibling pairing that  promises big laughs and heated rivalry. 

Co-written by Jon Bradfield (Animal, Park Theatre, Hope Mill Theatre; Queers, BBC) and Martin Hooper (Ghosted, The Other Palace, Norwich Playhouse), and featuring original songs by Bradfield, this  obnoxiously gay extravaganza is directed by Andrew Beckett (Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat, UK and  International tour; Come Dine with Me: the Musical, Underbelly, Norwich Playhouse) with musical  direction and orchestrations by Aaron Clingham and choreography by Carole Todd, whose extensive  panto career includes directing Lily Savage in Snow White. 

Journeying from the musty sea-view rooms of the Royal Palace B&B to lavish ballroom splendour,  Cinderella: Buttons Undone! is brought to life with set design by award-winning David Shields (Heathers The Musical; 2026 Offie Award and Fringe Theatre Award winner for Beauty and the Beast: A  Horny Love Story); costumes by Robert Draper; lighting by Matt Hockley; sound by Andrew Johnson;  and is produced by Oli Sones for He’s Behind You! 

With a festive farce full of gangsters, disguises and romantic confusion, He's Behind You! shakes the  dust off another classic: smartly stupid, joyfully chaotic and full of traditional pantomime spirit.  

Co-writer and composer Jon Bradfield comments, We’ll be celebrating all the famous Cinderella  moments, but not quite as you’d expect! We've had huge fun creating our version so that our  wonderful muse Matthew Baldwin can bring his legendary dame skills to Mercedes with our brilliant  regular collaborator Chris Lane as her brother Bentley. 

Making theatre that people look forward to with friends as their Christmas treat each year is a joy, especially when you can make it with a team that you respect, love and trust. Adult panto doesn’t just allow us to make the kind of toxically rude jokes that I feel embarrassed about if I have family watching. It gives us the freedom to tell gay-centred stories within a big, shiny, magical, epic, popular and uniquely theatrical form. 

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