Charlie & the Chocolate Factory musical premieres at Palladium, June 2013
Producers of a new musical version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have confirmed that the show will premiere at the London Palladium in June 2013.
Dahl’s popular story centres on the mysterious Willy Wonka, who is opening his Chocolate Factory for just one day, and the humble boy Charlie Bucket for whom it promises to be a mouth-watering chance to feast his eyes on sweets beyond his wildest imagination.
The production will be the second Dahl adaptation playing in London with the RSC’s multi award-winning Matilda the Musical continuing at the Cambridge Theatre.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Kevin McCormick. Tickets go on sale in October, with exact dates and casting still to be announced.
Set and costume design will be by Mark Thompson with choreography by Peter Darling (Matilda, Billy Elliot). Other members of the creative team include: Doug Besterman (orchestrations); Nicholas Skilbeck (music director); Paul Pyant (lighting designer); Paul Arditti (sound designer) and Jon Driscoll (video and projection designer).
Director Sam Mendes‘ work directing theatre and film spans 25 years, including founding the Donmar Warehouse in 1992. Among his many theatre credits are Glengarry Glen Ross, Cabaret, The Blue Room, The Front Page, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. Several of his productions have transferred to Broadway, including Cabaret (which won four Tony Awards including Best Musical), Gypsy, The Blue Room and the world premiere of David Hare’s The Vertical Hour.
More recently he was involved in a joint venture between The Old Vic and BAM in New York, The Bridge Project, for which he directed several productions including The Tempest, The Cherry Orchard, A Winter’s Tale and Richard III starring Kevin Spacey. His film credits include the Oscar-winning American Beauty (which also starred Spacey), Road To Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go. He is currently directing the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, which will be released in October 2012.
Scottish playwright David Greig’s work includes The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart, Midsummer, Dunsinane, Damascus and Miniskirts Of Kabul. Adaptations include The Creditors (Donmar Warehouse and BAM, NYC), The Bacchae (Edinburgh International Festival and Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Tintin In Tibet (Barbican, Playhouse Theatre, London and National Tour) and Peter Pan (NTS, Traverse/Barbican). His previous work for children and young people includes The Monster In The Hall, Yellow Moon, Gobbo and Dr Korczcak’s Example. He is currently working with Film Four on a screen adaptation of his stage ‘play with songs’ Midsummer.
Currently at the London Palladium, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new staging of The Wizard of Oz continues until 2 September. No further productions have yet been confirmed, though the Lincoln Centre revival of South Pacific is rumoured to be transferring later in the year.
