Hannifah Mohammad for GAY TIMES Magazine

Heartstopper’s Joe Locke is set to make his Broadway debut next month in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Joe starts performances as the young apprentice Tobias Ragg at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 31 January.

Producers announced on 7 December that Joe will leave the school yards of Truham Grammar School and hop over the pond to take over the role from Daniel Marconi.

In addition to Joe, Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster will join the cast of the acclaimed Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical in the roles of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, respectively, on 9 February. They will replace outgoing original cast members Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford, whose final performances are slated for 14 January.

Joe posted the announcement on Instagram and simply said: “See u on Broadway Jan 31st.”

 

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A post shared by Joe Locke (@joelocke03)

Supporters were quick to congratulate him, including his Heartstopper castmates. “So proud of you bby,” wrote Tobie Donovan, who plays Isaac Henderson.

Dylan Mulvaney said what we were all thinking: “Best news quite possibly ever.”

This is not the first time Joe has taken to the stage. He made his professional debut last August in Donmar Warehouse’s production of Dawn King’s The Trials, where he played one of 12 child jurors determining the fate of a defendant’s guilt of crimes against the environment.

Joe shot to fame in his breakout role as Charlie Spring in Netflix’s acclaimed coming of age drama Heartstopper.

Production on season three of Heartstopper was confirmed to have begun on 2 October, however a release date has yet to be finalised.

The first new cast member for the highly anticipated return has been confirmed to be Darragh Hand, who will play Michael Holden.

The season three cast in its entirety is yet to be confirmed, but the main characters are expected to return.

This includes Locke as Charlie, Kit Connor as Nick, Yasmin Finney as Elle, William Gao as Tao, Corinna Brown as Tara, Kizzy Edgell as Darcy and Donovan as Isaac.

Also returning will be: Jenny Walser as Tori, Cormac Hyde-Corrin as Harry, Rhea Norwood as Imogen, Fisayo Akinade as Nathan, Chetna Pandya as Coach Singh, Bradley Riches as James and Olivia Colman as Nick’s mother.

The only main cast member who definitely won’t be back is Sebastian Croft as Ben, the toxic ex-lover of Charlie. Alice Oseman told Netflix’s companion site Tudum that the character’s “role in Heartstopper is now complete” following his arc in season two.