Commonwealth Games 'Mop Man' Swaps the Mop for The Music Hall in Newcastle's New Jekyll and Hyde
Cast announced for Craig Wilde's new adaptation, at the Assembly Rooms from 22–31 October 2026
CJ Miller, the dancer who became a worldwide sensation as the "Mop Man" at this summer's Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, is to make his Newcastle stage debut in a new adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the Assembly Rooms, Fenkle Street, from 22 to 31 October.
Miller plays Ivy Champagne, an East End music hall female impersonator whose world collides with Mr Hyde's. He joins Grant Lawson as Dr Henry Jekyll and Mr Edward Hyde, former North East Culture Awards Performing Artist of the Year Jamie Brown as Gabriel Utterson, and Luke Madison, star of Netflix's Can I Tell You a Secret?, as Richard Enfield. All four actors play several other characters as well.
Written by Craig Wilde, the production is set in and around a Victorian East End music hall. It takes Stevenson's story out of the respectable drawing rooms of the original and into the gaslit world Hyde escapes to: the halls, the back rooms and the songs.
Craig Wilde, writer, said: "[Stevenson tells us about Hyde's London but never takes us there. This adaptation does. The music hall was the one place in Victorian London where people could be someone else for the night, so it's exactly where Hyde would go."
The production reunites the creative team behind the sell-out Dickens by Candlelight – A Christmas Carol, now entering its fifth year at Alderman Fenwick's House, and last year's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. It is directed by Michael Blair (The Last Ship, Northern Stage) and produced by Louise Dearden for Niltoni Entertainment.
The run falls in the Assembly Rooms' 250th anniversary year. The Georgian venue opened in 1776 and hosted society balls and entertainments for generations of Newcastle audiences.
LISTINGS
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The Assembly Rooms, Fenkle Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 5XU
22–31 October 2026 · 7pm evenings, Matinees 2pm
Tickets: From £29.50 · www.theassemblyrooms.org
Age guidance: [e.g. 14+ — contains violence and adult themes]
