Full Cast Announced for Lyric Hammersmith's Christmas Panto JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

The Lyric Hammersmith announces the full casting for its Christmas panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, co-directed by Artistic Director, Sean Holmes and Jude Christian, an Artistic Associate of the Lyric. Daniel Fraser will play Jill and Kraig Thornber will play Dame Lotte Trottalot. They join the previously announced Kayla Meikle who plays Daisy the Cow, Faith Omole who plays Jack, Cherrelle Skeete who plays Fairy Cucumber and Vikki Stone who plays Fleshcreep. The ensemble is built up of six young performers, as part of the Lyric Hammersmith's commitment to nurturing young talent.

With plenty of magic beans, a loveable cow, an enormous beanstalk, a gigantic giant and a massive adventure, this year's panto looks set to be the biggest ever. Join Jack on his quest for fortune as Jack and the Beanstalk gets the full Lyric treatment with wonderful characters, live music, dancing, singing and loads of laughs.

SPECIAL GUESTS ANNOUNCED

Joe Stilgoe's Christmas at the Lyric

Presented by Lyric Hammersmith and EBP

Joe Stilgoe & His Mighty Big Band - Monday 04 December 2017

Joe Stilgoe's Christmas Party - Monday 11 December 2017

Joe Stilgoe's White Christmas - Monday 18 December 2017

Hot off the press Jamie Parker (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Guys and Dolls, High Society, The History Boys), and other celebrity guests will join Joe and his band for London's best Christmas Party on Monday 11 December and Katherine Kingsley (Olivier nominated for Singin' in the Rain), Anna-Jane Casey (Billy Elliott, Annie Get Your Gun, Chicago, Spamalot), Peter Horsfall (Kansas Smitty's) will join Joe on Monday 18 December for Joe's take on Irving Berlin's classic, White Christmas.

Joe Stilgoe has twice topped the UK jazz chart, been featured on countless radio programmes for Radio 2, 3 & 4, presented on BBC4, Radio 2 and JazzFM, has written award-winning songs, starred in The Old Vic's 2015 production of High Society, and he has an established international concert career, collaborating with John Wilson, Curtis Stigers, Claire Martin, the RLPO and BBC Concert Orchestra among many others. He has had sell out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and is a regular favourite at the world-famous home of jazz, Ronnie Scotts.

JACK & THE BEANSTALK CAST

Daniel Fraser plays Jill

Theatre credits include: Deny, Deny, Deny (Park Theatre); Flare Path (UK Tour); Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies (RSC/Aldwych); Chariots of Fire (also Gielgud) and Noctropia (Hampstead); Oh, To Be in England (Finborough) and Orpheus: The Mythical (Royal Opera House)

Film and TV credits include: Doctors, Holby City, Ready When You Are Mr McGill, Frequencies, Scar Tissue, AFG, The Manual and Lab Rats.

Kayla Meikle plays Daisy the Cow

Theatre credits include: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet (National Theatre); PRIMETIME (Royal Court); Merlin (Nuffield); The Taming of the Shrew (Arts Theatre); All That Lives (Ovalhouse) and Streets (Interval Productions)

Film and TV credits include: Will.

Faith Omole plays Jack

Theatre credits include: Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange); The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree/National Theatre/West Yorkshire Playhouse); Custody (Talawa); A Slave Story (Traverse/ UK Tour) and Walk in the Light (National Theatre).

Film and TV credits include: Dumpee and He Loves Me.

Cherrelle Skeete plays Fairy Cucumber

For the Lyric: The Seagull.

Other theatre credits include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace); Three Days in the Country and Amen Corner (National Theatre); Wind in the Willows (Royal and Derngate, Northampton); And I and Silence (Finborough) and The Lion King (Lyceum).

Film and TV credits include: Silent Witness, Danny and the Human Zoo, The Five, Ordinary Lies and Call the Midwife.

Vikki Stone plays Fleshcreep

Vikki Stone is an award-winning comedian, actress, musician and composer, best known as host of the official BBC Proms Podcast. She is also an Associate of The Royal College of Music and Fellow of Wells Cathedral School.

For the Lyric: Aladdin.

Television credits include: Partners in Rhyme, The John Bishop Show, Uncle, Ten Pieces, The Funny Thing About...,Titch & Ted, Safeword.

Radio credits include: The Proms Podcast, BBC Radio 6 Music Weekend Breakfast

The Now Show, In Tune, Essential Classics, Live At The Fringe, The Last Word, Virgin Radio's Sunday Takeover.

Composition credits include: The Thing That Matters (Imagination, The Royal Albert Hall), Concerto for Comedian & Orchestra (Glastonbury/Latitude/Edinburgh Festival).

Kraig Thornber plays Dame Lotte Trottalot

Kraig was born in Leicester and trained at the East 15 Acting School.

Theatre credits include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Guys and Dolls, Oh! What a Lovely War, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (National Theatre); Return to the Forbidden Planet (Cambridge Theatre); The Rocky Horror Show (Duke of York's); Brassed Off (UK Tour); The Government Inspector (Northern Broadsides); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Queen's Theatre Hornchurch); The Mikado, A Christmas Carol (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Poppins (UK Tour); Twelfth Night (Stafford Festival); The Front Page (Chichester Festival Theatre); Oliver! (New Vic Theatre); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Forum, A Family Affair, A Mad World My Masters (New Wolsey Theatre); The Millennium Mysteries, Heart of Darkness (Teatr Biuro Podrozy, Poland); Cabaret, Façade (Pocket Opera Venice); The Threepenny Opera, Happy End, Sugar, Somewhere in England (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Loot (Watford Palace Theatre) and The Gambler (Liverpool Everyman).

Kraig has also appeared in many pantomimes around the country, playing a wonderful selection of Baddies, Ugly Sisters and Dames.

Film and TV credits include: A Thing Called Love, Dog Boy, True Crimes, The Bill, Muppets Most Wanted, Alice - Through the Looking Glass, Inception, Gulliver's Travels, The Last Minute and The Rocky Horror Tribute Show (recorded live at The Royal Court Theatre).

Cast: Daniel Fraser (Jill), Kayla Meikle (Daisy the Cow), Faith Omole (Jack), Cherelle Skeete (Fairy Cucumber), Vikki Stone (Fleshcreep) and Kraig Thornber (Dame Lotte Trottalot).

Young Ensemble: Montel Bowen, Olivia Rose David, Lucy Havard, Jack Pallister, Tienne Simon and Amelia Stevenson.

Joel Horwood

Writer

Joel is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith.

For the Lyric: Aladdin (2016), Secret Theatre: A Stab in the Dark, A Series Of Increasingly Impossible Acts, Cinderella (co-written with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm 2012) and Dick Whittington (co-written with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm 2010).

Other theatre credits include: Little Matchgirl (Globe); I Want My Hat Back (National Theatre); The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); The Planet And Stuff (Polka); I Heart Peterborough (Soho); The Count Of Monte Cristo (West Yorkshire Playhouse); I Caught Crabs In Walberswick (The Pleasance/UK Tour/The Bush); Is Everyone OK? (Latitude Festival/UK Tour); Stoopud Fucken Animals, Food (Traverse); and Mikey the Pikey (The Pleasance/UK tour).

Jude Christian Co-Director

Jude is an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith.

For the Lyric (as Associate Director): Shopping and F**king, Aladdin, The Seagull.

Theatre credits include: Split/Mixed (Summerhall); Nanjing (Yard Theatre); Blue (RWCMD); Lela & Co. (Royal Court); I'd Rather Goya Robbed Me Of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole (Gate Theatre/Boom Arts Portland) and Bwyta Eliffant, Sut Mae Gwneud Hynny Dwedwch?/How Do You Eat An Elephant? (National Youth Theatre of Wales).

Sean Holmes Co-Director Sean is Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith.

For the Lyric: The Seagull, Terror, Shopping and F**king, Bugsy Malone, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Herons, Secret Theatre Shows 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, Cinderella, Desire Under the Elms, Morning, Have I None, Saved, Blasted - winner Olivier Award 2011, Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, Ghost Stories (also Duke of York's/Liverpool Playhouse/Panasonic Theatre, Toronto/Arts Theatre), Three Sisters and Comedians.

In 2016 Sean directed The Plough and the Stars at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin (also Irish/US Tour).

Sean was an Associate Director of the Oxford Stage Company from 2001 to 2006 and has also worked at the National Theatre, RSC, Tricycle, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre and The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

Photo credit: Jay Brooks