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every time the HEARTSTOPPER cast have been on stage | theatre roles of Kit Connor, Joe Locke + more
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Micky Jo
Has anyone else been watching Heartstopper on Netflix? I was looking forward to the third season for so long. I was so excited to watch it with my fiance, Aaron. We watched the whole thing in one evening. It emotionally destroyed me. And I thought while it's not specifically theatre related and I have mixed feelings about, like the viability of a Heartstopper adaptation on stage, I could talk to you about the very exciting cast of the show and where you may have seen them on stage before and where you can see some of them on stage right now and where you might see them on stage in the future. Oh my God. Hey. For those of you who are here because of Heartstopper, who haven't seen my face before, my name is Micky jo. I create YouTube videos here at MickyJoe Theatre. Also more content across the rest of the Internet. You can find me on TikTok, on Instagram, on the app formerly known as Twitter, on threads. And I am a professional independent theatre critic and a content creator and a pundit. Basically, I go and see a lot of theatre and then I review it and I tell you what I thought about it here on social media. And I have had the distinct joy of seeing a couple of the Heartstopper cast on stage. I'll be seeing more of them soon and I've also had the lovely opportunity to meet a few of them at performances where their colleagues from Heartstopper were performing and they all turned up to support, which I thought was really lovely. But anyway, I have a habit of talking too much in these introductions and I'm very excited to tell you what I have discovered in researching for today's video because I knew a little bit of this information already, but some of it is news to me and there is much to discuss because I'm going to be letting you know know of all of the cast of Heartstopper, both like the main characters as well as some of the supporting characters that we have seen throughout the last few seasons where you may have seen them on stage before. Now, if you have seen any of these actors on stage before, let us know in the comments section down below. Also, let me know what you thought of the third series of Heartstopper and if there's a particular role or a show that you would like to see one of these performers in, let's do some dreamcasting in the comments section as well. Now, for those of you from a theatrical background who watch my videos and don't necessarily know what Heartstopper is, this is a Netflix series adapted from A collection of young graphic novels created by Alice Oseman. And it follows a collection of young queer characters going to school and navigating, you know, mental health challenges and coming of age and relationships, and discerning their own identity and sexuality and falling in love and navigating both common and unique pressures while experiencing queer adolescence. And it manages to be both inspiring and romantic and beautiful and nostalgic and also, like, devastating at the same time. But it's become this really popular phenomenon and it has elevated many of its cast members to new levels of stardom and success. This was not all of their first jobs necessarily, but many of them are very exciting young talents who, because of this show, are going to go on and have very exciting next steps in their career. We're seeing that for some of them already and the theatre may be a big part of. So let me get into it. Comment down below with everything you want to say. But meanwhile, I am going to tell you of the Heartstopper cast who has done theatre before and what they did. Let's start with Mr. Joe Locke, currently seen on Agatha all along for Disney. Joe is gonna have this really exciting career and we have seen some of that happening on stage already. Now, he is one of the two leads of Heartstopper. He plays the young protagonist Charlie Spring. And in fact, he made, I believe, his stage debut in the Trials at the Donmar Warehouse, for which he won a what's On Stage award. This play, which sadly I didn't get the chance to see, was about a jury of teenagers putting adults on trial for their crimes against the climate. It was one of many contemporary pieces of theatre addressing the climate crisis. But Joe's biggest stage role was yet to come because earlier this year, and I talked about this at the time, he joined the cast of Sweeney Todd on Broadway, taking over as Tobias, which is lovely part that he was beautifully well cast in. I did get to see this. I got to see him at the Luntfontanne Theatre starring alongside Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster. And he was brilliant in this role. He was probably my favorite of that replacement cast of principals who came in. He's got a beautiful voice as well, like genuinely not just like a capable enough voice for him as an already famous actor to do musical theater, like, legitimately. Really great voice. And he was so, I mean, everything that makes him so brilliant in Hardstopper translated so well to Sweeney Todd because he had that vulnerability and fragility. Obviously his English accent was great, which was not a given for this production since it opened. At the Luntfontanne, he did a fantastic job. His scenes with Sutton were brilliant. Sort of. The slightly manic twist that his character arc took towards the end was very well played. I thought he was fantastic in Sweeney Todd. I'm very excited for him to return to the theatre and hopefully musical theatre again because I can think of like 5 to 10 more roles I would like to see Joe play, all of which involve him singing on stage because he has a beautiful next up. We've talked about Joe Locke, obviously we're now going to talk about Kit Connor who plays Nick Nelson, another one who is about to have this really huge career. We have already seen him beginning to do film. He had done a lot of stuff before Heartstopper. He actually plays young Elton John in the Rocket man film, funnily enough. But he had yet to make his professional stage debut, I believe until very recently because he is starring right now in a new production of Romeo and Juliet on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theater that is selling very well with the combined star power of himself and Rachel Zegler. Now this is a very talked about production that I am very excited to hopefully go and see when I'm traveling over to Broadway within the next month. So stay tuned. There will be a review of Kit and Rachel in Romeo and Juliet here on my channel. Make sure you're subscribed with notifications on so you don't miss it. And this, I think was a really terrific piece of casting. It was also an incredibly obvious piece of casting. Like when someone emerges as a young romantic lead, especially, you know, someone who is like a very, like a sweet type, they're gonna do Romeo in Romeo and Juliet like Tom Holland just did Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. If someone emerges with a little bit more edge, then they might do something a little bit darker. Interestingly enough, it's always Shakespeare. It does seem to be Shakespeare for these young actors who going into the theater. And I think it's because we allow Shakespeare to feel that little bit more legitimate for screen actors to like preserve their status. Like their big name actors. They're going to go and do Shakespeare because they're doing Shakespeare on stage and that's the most robust thing that they could possibly be doing. What I had heard is that Kit was actually being courted for a Shakespearean production here in the uk that sadly fell through because another big name actor ended up doing a different production of it at the same time. This is the problem here in the uk There is, even though there's many Shakespeare plays They all happen at the same time. We are constantly inundated with Midsummer Night's Dreams and Macbeth's and hamlets and Richard III's and in fact it was none of those. But in any case, and it wasn't Romeo and Juliet either. We didn't end up getting that production. But it did free him up to go and do Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, which by all accounts looks like a very fun production. There's a bit of music in it. I think he sings a little bit because again he can when are you doing musical theatre, Kit Connor? I ask the question and I will wait for a response. There's also a moment where a bed get lowered from above and he jumps and grabs it. Everyone loses their mind and then he does a pull up so that he can kiss Rachel Zegler as Juliet and everyone loses their mind again. No doubt Kit Connor is going to have a huge screen career. Hopefully in between that we will see him returning to the stage now and then. Next up, William Gow, who plays Tao. Now he also appeared alongside Joe Locke in the Trials at the Donmar Warehouse. Imagine their luck after Heartstopper already begins to become this cultural phenomenon when they cast two of the show's stars in the same show. Now William had done a little bit of stage work before this as well. He is an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre. He's also appeared in Shakespeare at 400 at the Royal Festival hall as well as a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Glyndebourne. William plays Tao on the series, one of Charlie's friends who is also navigating a new relationship, and another of their friends, Isaac, is played by Toby Donovan. Isaac's arc on the show is also about him discovering his own identity. And Toby, after Heartstopper debuted, made his stage debut in Papercut at the Park Theatre. This was in like early summer 2023. This was a play by Andrew Rosendorf. I didn't get the chance to see this one. If anyone did, please let us know what it was like in the comments. Apparently it was about a soldier returning from war and it was also a queer love story. Another of the show's central characters is one called Tara, who is played by Corinna Brown, who has done a little bit of stage work, but mostly this seemed to have been prior to Heartstopper and I feel like as and when she wants to return to the ST is going to have a lot of hopefully very exciting opportunities. But some of her previous credits, according to my research, include a production of Macbeth with twist Theatre Company, as well as multiple pantomimes at the Hackney Empire. And the Hackney Empire Pantomimes, by the way. I'm not saying this incidentally. They are pretty legendary productions directed by Susie McKenna. Apparently she was in Mother Goose. Now I saw Mother Goose at Hackney Empire. So right after I'm done filming this, I'm about to go dig out my program and see if I have seen Corinna Brown on stage before. Next up we have Rhea Norwood as Imogen, who recently made her stage debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. And what a way to make your stage debut. My goodness. This as part of the ongoing West End revival of Cabaret at the KitKat Club, originally directed by Rebecca Frecknell, playing at the Kit Kat Club AKA the Playhouse Theatre in the West End. The same production is running concurrently on Broadway, where Adam Lambert and Aldi E. Cravalio are currently starring. But this production in London has done a great job in consistently attracting buzzy names, a lot of them from screen work, from TV and film to star as the mc. And Sally Bowles and Rhea appeared in the show for a limited stint earlier this year alongside Leighton Williams. I got to see her in Cabaret and it was really great. You could tell that she was playing a role that meant a huge amount to her. I enjoyed the vocals. A lot of the typical Sally Bowles characterisation seemed to come very naturally to her, but she took it to some very energized, dynamic places. It felt like a very young, very willful, very naive Sally Bowles, which tends to be my preference in terms of the portrayal of that character. I've seen this revival like 10 times with a bunch of different actresses playing the role at this point, and she is following in the footsteps of Jessie Buckley and Amy Lennox and Rebecca, Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem and Cara Delevingne. Like a lot of brilliant performances had come before her and she really made her own mark on the role. I thought she did a great job. And she was not the only Heartstopper cast member on stage in London this summer because Bradley Riches was appearing in Babies. Bradley plays James in Heartstopper, and in Babies he was playing the character of Toby, who has a kind of a slightly similar arc to the stories depicted within Heartstopper. Babies was a new musical written by Martha Gillan and Jack Godfrey that hopefully is going to continue to go on to a very bright future. I loved that show. I reviewed it. Bradley was fantastic in it as well. The characterization was brilliant. He was so funny. The vocals were good, but also clearly has some kind of dance training because just casually like did this reclining, like kick his leg up over his head moment at one point during the song Hot dad. Which standout number of the show every single time, if I'm correct. Bradley Richards has been on stage quite a bit pre Heartstopper, I believe. I'm pretty sure he had done a lot of theatre before that and is also going to be doing his first pantomime later this year. You will be able to see him in Peter Pan at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre. Next up, we cannot forget about Jenny Walser, who plays Tori, Charlie's sister. She has some very interesting moments, specifically in the most recent series of the show. I feel like we're getting to know her a lot more as a character. And Jenny the actress has done an extraordinary amount of theatre, including plays at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Vault Festival with the National Youth Theatre Youth Company, and plays including the Narciss at the Minerva Theatre at Chichester Festival Theatre and Kindertransport at Nottingham Playhouse. But I really enjoy her performance on Heartstopper and I'm particularly intrigued to see her on stage in another play. I could see her somewhere like the Almeida. Like, I would love to see her in a Rebecca Frecknell directed Tennessee Williams play at the Almeida. That just feels like it all makes sense in my head. Now, I've been telling you about the actors who play the charming young characters on Heartstopper, but there are a couple who also play some less charming characters, including the wonderful Sebastian Croft, who plays the character of Ben, who, let's just say, is not the most likable character on the series. But Sebastian may win the prize for having done the most theater out of any of the young cast members of Heartstopper. Because he has some credits, let me tell you. Not only has he done Les Mis in the West End, I think he was also an Oliver in Oliver. He was an Adrian Mole in the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole in the West End. These all would have been when he was younger, but he has recently made a stage return as well in the COVID delayed production of 4,000 miles. Now, originally it was meant to star Eileen Atkins, Dame Eileen Atkins and Timothee Chalamet. Timothee Chalamet at the Old Vic Theatre in London. But because of COVID everything got delayed. Timothy had to go and be Wonka and it ended up happening at Chichester Festival Theatre where Sebastian stepped into his shoes, his presumably very expensive fashionable shoes. I did not see this play. It's an Amy Herzog play. I didn't get the chance to see it. If anyone did, let us know what you thought in the comment section down below. But again, I would love to see Sebastian Croft on stage. I've seen him in an audience when we were watching the same thing, but that wasn't quite as fun as like seeing him on stage doing a play. I would like to do that. Another of the show's less likable characters is one called Harry, played by a young actor named Cormac Hyde Corinne, who recently also made his stage debut post the release of Heartstopper in a play at the Kingshead Theatre in Islington. The Kings Head is this wonderful venue that I really encouraged you to visit who dedicatedly program queer work, queer stories and this was a play called Northbound Boy. Now you may be wondering what about the other young leads, Yasmin Finney and Kizzy Edgell, who play Elle and Darcy respectively? Well, Yasmin has done a little bit of stage work, most of it based on what I can tell, seems to have been while she was training Kizzy Edgel. This is actually his first ever professional job, it seems, doing the Heartstopper. And I'm really excited for both of them to do exciting professional theater beyond that. And the reason for that is because they're really dynamic, expressive, exciting young talents. They're both fantastic actors, but also trans and non binary characters and performers are ongoingly underrepresented. Like it's getting better but still underrepresented in professional theater. And so when you have young trans and non binary performers getting profiled in something like Heartstopper and being elevated and having this opportunity to do exciting work, that means really exciting things because it means people will create roles for those performers. It means opportunities will become available and that's very exciting. This hopefully will lead the way and open more doors so that there are more opportunities for a whole bunch of exciting trans and non binary talent who don't necessarily have to be on a big Netflix show first. Now Heartstopper is not just about a series of young characters. Let me tell you about some of the other cast members who have done stage work, starting with one of my favourites, Fisayo akiade, who plays Mr. Ajayi on Heartstopper. I love this character. I love the every time we get to see the teachers on Heartstopper. If you don't know, I used to be a maths teacher for like five years of my life and for much if not all of that. For the majority of my classes I was an openly gay teacher and like trying to to advocate for students in that environment, to make sure that like young queer students were supported. And so seeing that on screen and seeing these characters, that really warms my heart. That almost like I'm almost even more excited for those characters than I am for the younger generation. It's like I've been in the Nick and Charlie place, but I have also been this guy. Anyway, he has done a wealth of stage work and is another one who was on stage this summer. He was on stage last month at the Noel Coward Theatre in Slave Play, the high profile West End transfer of the very successful, very highly Tony Award nominated play. I reviewed it here on YouTube if you would like to go and see what I thought of that and of Fisayo's performance. I thought he was brilliant in it. Spoiler alert. You can go and watch that full review here on my channel now. This was not the first time I had seen him on stage. I also saw him in the Crucible, which had transferred from the National Theatre to the West End to the Gielgud. He'd also done Barbershop Chronicles at the national, which I loved thrillingly. This is an actor who we are going to keep seeing on stage and I am very pleased about that because I think he's wonderful. I would love for him to get to play as much warmth and levity and charm and kindness on stage as he gets to do in Heartstopper. I feel like every time I see him on stage the roles are much more heavier with gravitas, which he does very, very well and like in darker places. But I want to get to see that that won charm as well. And there is another teacher in Heartstopper, Mr. Farouk, played by Nima Taleghani, another actor I've seen multiple times on stage, both times in Jamie Lloyd directed productions. He is frequently a collaborator of his. He was on stage with Tom Holland earlier this year in Romeo and Juliet and prior to that he was brilliant. He was so, so good in Cyrano in the west end with James McAvoy. This was a performance that really made me have one of those like, who the hell is that? Moments When I saw him I was like, this is an incredibly dynamic, incredibly unique, expressive performer that comes through in everything he does. I think he's fantastic. Of course we can't forget Alan Turkington, who plays Mr. Lang on Heartstopper as well, who I have personally seen on stage in From Here to Eternity at the Charing Cross Theatre as well as in My Night with Reg at the Turbine, which is a very important Gay play written by Kevin Elliot. Now we also get to meet the families of Nick and Charlie. And Nick's mum is played by Olivia Colman. Sadly, she doesn't appear on the most recent season. We'll get to who does in just a moment. But Olivia Colman, who prior to becoming an Academy Award winning actress was largely associated with a lot of comedic British television, but also has done a little bit of theatre as well. I believe she made her theatrical debut years ago in Long Day's Journey Into Night in a production I have just learned about while researching for this video, which had an incredible cast. This was in November 2000 at the Lyric Theatre in the West End and it was led by Charles Dance and Jessica Lange, with Paul Nichols and Paul Rudd and Olivia Colman in like a smaller supporting role. What a lineup to have seen. If anyone saw that production, I am desperate to hear more about it. Subsequently, Olivia Colman has been on stage in Mosquitoes at the National Theatre as well as the play Hayfever, which I believe is the one that Phi Phi Polybridge is talking about when she tells that story that she told on Graham Norton. If anyone has seen that clip and mentions Olivia Colman in it, of course they would later appear together in her televised version of her show Fleabag. Anyway, like I said, Olivia Colman we do not see in the most recent series of Heartstopper because she was not available at the time of filming. And instead we get to meet Nick's Aunt Diane, played by Hayley Atwell, who has also been on stage multiple times before, most notably in the plays Rasmasholm and the Pride, but is about to be on stage again in the early part of 2025. She is going to be doing a little bit of sh, but she's going to be doing Jamie Lloyd directed Shakespeare, so who the hell knows what that is going to look like. I'm very cautiously excited for it because it is my favourite Shakespeare play. She's doing Much Ado About Nothing with Tom Hiddleston. Yes, the star wattage is considerable. This is going to be at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where the star wattage better be considerable because that theatre is vast and they need to sell a huge amount of tickets. That's going to be the second Jamie Lloyd directed Shakespeare play there after Sigourney Weaver opens in the Tempest very, very soon. I'm super intrigued as to what this is going to be like. Jamie Lloyd really making a huge name for himself at the moment as this very bold director with this very specific aesthetic, one that doesn't necessarily lend itself tonally too Much Ado About Nothing in an obvious way. So I'm super intrigued, like I said, cautiously optimistic about this production. Hayley's going to be fantastic as Beatrice though. That's like beautiful casting there. If you know nothing about this play, you can look forward to her having this sort of like spiteful, indifferent, turned to romance relationship with Tom Hiddleston. A lot of times when we see that trope subsequently in books and films and theatre, it sort of harkens back to Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. They kind of, they kind of started that. Charlie's mother, meanwhile, is played by Georgina Rich. Now Georgina has done lots of Shakespeare. She has done everything from the Merchant of Venice to as you like it, Also Much Ado About Nothing. Also King Lear and Richard iii. And she's done this at places like the Hampstead Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company and with English touring theatre. But there is one particular credit that caught my attention because apparently she was the original Frances Houseman, better known as Baby when Dirty Dancing was first brought to the stage in London. I'm talking about Dirty Dancing live on stage, the play with music. This was at the Aldwitch Theatre. Now the Wikipedia page for Dirty Dancing suggests that she didn't originate that production, but the rest of the Internet seems to suggest that she did. And there are pictures and I am just so fascinated by like the contrast between that job and the rest of her otherwise very Shakespearean career. Like fascinated by that. Now though we don't get to see as much of her on the show. Darcy's mum is played by Rachel Sterling and I have to mention this because she is on stage right now in London in a very hot ticket, a very sold out play at the Royal Court about Roald Dahl. She plays his mistress and she is doing fantastic work in it. The play is called Giant. This is at the Royal Court. She is a multi Olivier Award nominated actress who has done a lot of stage work before, but literally is appearing on the London stage right now. In fact, not right now. She'll be, she'll be getting ready right now in a few hours time. Finally there is another theatrical performer who made a little bit of a cameo appearance in this most recent season of Heartstopper. He played a character called Jack Maddox. I am talking of course about Jonathan Bailey who even though he is an Olivier award winning actor who has done everything from Shakespeare at the National Theatre to new musicals at the Almeida to high profile revivals, is about to be best known among Theatre fans for playing Fiyero in the two part film adaptation of Wicked. Yes, Jonathan Bailey is Fiyero in the Wicked movie and that is about to overtake everything else he has ever done on stage and be reason why musical theater fans specifically know who he is. However, he was also in the original cast of American Psycho with Matt Smith AKA Doctor who at the Almeida and I saw it. This is before he was a really huge name. He was in the last five years opposite Samantha Barks at the Other Palace. This may even have been before it was called the Other Palace. This may have been back when it was at the St. James. I saw him in Othello at the National Theatre with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear and you could already tell in that performance that this was someone who was going to be a very exciting breakout talent. He made this triumphant stage return in revival of the play Cock at the Ambassador's Theatre recently and his Olivier Award winning turn of course came when he played Jamie in the Marianne Elliott reconceived version of the Sondheim Musical Company, a character originally called Amy. This was a gender swapped version of the show and he gave this memorably hysterical performance of the the intense fast paced song Not Getting Married Today or Getting Married Today. I can never remember what it's actually called. But if you, like many other people are a big Jonathan Bailey fan and you would love to see him on stage, I have great news for you because he is returning to the London stage next year and guess what he's doing. Guess what? He's doing a Shakespeare. Of course he is because he's now a legitimate screen actor and that is what they do. They come back to the West End stage but they do Shakespeare and listen. Nothing against Shakes, he has a wonderful back catalogue. However, there are other options. I need people to know that there are other options. And fair enough, like he was already very much on the rise when he came back and did Cock. But there are other things we can do other than Shakespeare and I'm very excited. He's probably going to be brilliant in Richard ii. This is going to be at the Bridge Theatre next year. Book your tickets if you want to see Jonathan Bailey on stage. I want to see Jonathan Bailey on stage. Who among us doesn't want to see Jonathan Bailey on stage? How long before he goes to Broadway? That's my question. Like I wouldn't have expected Kit Connor and Gerlog to both get there before Jonathan Bailey did. Anyway, that is everything that I have discovered these past few hours about Heartstopper cast members and the stage work that they have done are currently doing are about to do. I didn't talk about every single person we see on screen, but if there's anyone I notably missed out from the show, let me know in the comments section down below. And also let us know which of these performances you might have seen before, which you're looking forward to seeing. Are you going to go see Kit Connor in Romeo and Juliet? Are you excited about Jonathan Bailey in the Wicked movie? Let us know in the comment section down below. Thank you for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed if you're a theatre person who hasn't yet watched Heartstopper, it's really lovely and also sorrowful, but in a beautiful, necessary way. Go and check it out. And finally make sure you're subscribed to me here on YouTube and following me across all the other social media platforms. I will be trying to go and see Much Ado About Nothing with Hayley Atwell. I will be trying to go and see Romeo and Juliet on Broadway and all the other upcoming shows that I talked about in this video. Thank you so much for watching. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.