Chocolate Factory Spawns New York Outpost???

The Menier Chocolate Factory has already proved itself to be one of the UK’s leading Broadway-bound exporters, with no fewer than four wins – converted from a whopping 15 nominations – at this year’s Tony Awards for its two current New York offerings, revivals of A Little Night Music and La Cage aux Folles. Those are just two of a staggeringly high proportion of productions originated at the Menier’s 150-seat Southwark home base that transfer to the West End and/or Broadway (the Willy Russell Season plays, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, for instance, just opened at the West End’s Trafalgar Studios last night after their run this spring in Southwark). Not content with such transfer output, artistic director David Babani is now apparently considering opening a “branch” of the theatre in New York, to launch new shows from there as well, according to an interview this week in the New York Times.