AL PORTER HAS been replaced by the former Mrs Brown’s Boys star Rory Cowan in the Olympia Theatre Christmas panto.
Cowan steps into the leading role of Polly in the Polly and the Beanstalk show after Porter stood down from the production in the wake of numerous allegations of inappropriate behaviour.
“Due to recent developments, Al Porter is standing aside from his role in this year’s Pantomime Polly and the Beanstalk at the Olympia Theatre,” the show’s promoters said in an earlier statement.
Since the allegations against Porter emerged last week the 24-year-old comedian has resigned from his lunchtime show on Today FM and TV3 pulled a repeat airing of his Blind Date show on Saturday night.
Had Porter appeared in the show it would have marked the comedian’s 13th year of involvement in the Olympia Panto.
Interestingly the new promotional photos featuring Rory Cowan show Cowan holding a script saying “Polly & The Beanstalk by Karl Spain”. Spain and Porter were previously listed as the show’s co-producers.
The panto has yet to respond to TheJournal.ie’s queries as to whether Porter is still a producer of the show.
Rory Cowan described joining the panto as a “privilege”.
I am very happy to be joining the cast of The Olympia Theatre panto. I am a huge panto fan and treading the hallowed boards of The Olympia is a privilege for me.
Rory will join Dustin the Turkey, Ryan Andrews of Fair City and Michaela O’Neill of the RTE TV show Scorchio in the show.
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