Heavy/Getty Actor Jonathan Bennett
“Mean Girls” alum and Hallmark Channel star Jonathan Bennett is heading to Broadway — a move he recently told Heavy is “the biggest dream come true of my entire life.”
On January 3, 2024, Bennett revealed on social media that he will join the cast of Broadway’s hit revival of “Spamalot” starting January 23. According to Playbill, he will succeed Michael Urie as Sir Robin, “the cowardly yet creative knight of the roundtable.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Jonathan Bennett Will Put Aside Other Work to Focus on Broadway Show
When Heavy caught up with the “Christmas on Cherry Lane” star and his husband Jaymes Vaughan on December 28, the couple was tight-lipped but clearly thrilled about Bennett’s yet-to-be-announced Broadway debut.
“I’m not allowed to say what it is, so let me just tell you that the next thing that I do in 2024 will be the biggest dream come true of my entire life,” he said.
When asked if they’ll continue to host trips in 2024 for the OUTbound travel company they co-founded, Bennett said, “We’re not doing any work ’cause we just don’t have time.”
“Wait till you see Jonathan’s schedule,” Vaughan added.
According to Spamalot’s website, the musical runs eight times a week — with two shows a day on Tuesdays and Fridays. Bennett will only have Sundays off, when Broadway is dark.
The current revival of “Spamalot” officially opened November 16, 2023 at New York’s St. James Theatre. Based on the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the musical — which first ran on Broadway in 2004 — follows King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table on their comedic quest for the Holy Grail. The original show won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005.
Many of Bennett’s Hallmark colleagues flooded his post with excitement over his upcoming Broadway debut.
Longtime friend Rachel Boston wrote, “YES!!!!!!!!! All the musicals we went to see and now YOU ARE ON BROADWAY!!!!!!! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟”
Lacey Chabert, a close friend since they starred together in “Mean Girls,” wrote, “I’m so thrilled for you!! 👏🏻⭐️”
Bennett’s “The Holiday Sitter” co-star George Krissa wrote, “THIS IS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE WORLD!!! 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳”
Will Kemp chimed in, “Hell Yeah!!! Congrats. Can’t wait to come see you. ❤️🙌🔥👏 (Will you now be eating ham and jam and Spam a lot?)”
It’s not clear how long Bennett has committed to appearing in “Spamalot,” but after making history with Hallmark as “the only actor that’s ever been a gay lead in four Christmas movies,” he assured Heavy that “we have more on the way!”
Jonathan Bennett Grew Up Performing in the Theater
GettyJonathan Bennett with fellow Hallmark and Broadway star Ginna Claire Mason in December 2023.
Though Bennett found fame in movies and TV, he has always been a huge Broadway fan who credits the theater program at his high school with helping him through his difficult teenage years.
In March 2021, he posted an Instagram video of himself performing in a high school musical and wrote about how that experience changed his life.
“I give you a video of a 16 year old gay boy in Ohio,” he wrote. “He has a pitchy voice, no rhythm, and can’t dance to save his life. He’s awkward, his teeth are too big for his face, and he lives in fear every single day because he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the boys in his class.”
Bennett wrote of how he was bullied verbally and physically, and developed stomach ulcers “because of the stress and the homophobia in his small town.”
“But there is one place (and only one place)that gives him the tiniest bit of refuge,” Bennett continued. “His high school theater. He walks in and for the first time in his life, he feels safe. He feels seen.”
Before he and Vaughan married in 2021, he joked to People that he was hoping for a theater-inspired wedding.
“I’m envisioning something between when Elphaba flies in the musical ‘Wicked’ and the finale number of ‘The Greatest Showman,'” he said, adding, “Or we could simplify it and I could just come out on a hydraulic stage from under the ground like Elle Woods does in ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical.'”
In July, Bennett made headlines when he surprised a high school theater cast in Palm Springs, California, that was rehearsing its upcoming production of the “Mean Girls” musical.
“I was one of these theater kids in high school,” Bennett said, and wound up belting out the showstopper “I’d Rather Be Me” along with the students.