Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

set to sweeten hearts of Sydney

theatre goers in 2019

The sweet success of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will be tasted by theatre goers in Sydney when the new musical hits the Capitol Theatre stage from January 8, 2019.

Roald Dahl’s treasured tale is being produced by John Frost, Craig Donnell, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Langley Park Productions and Neal Street Productions.

Step inside a world of pure imagination.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the perfect recipe for a delectable treat: songs from the original film including “Pure Imagination”, “The Candy Man” and “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”, alongside a toe-tapping and ear-tickling new score from the songwriters of Hairspray.

The producers said: “Sydney has a huge treat in store next summer, a magical concoction ready to satisfy any sweet tooth. Prepare to be enchanted by Roald Dahl’s bewitching tale once again, this time on stage. We’re thrilled to bring this captivating production to Australia for the first time. Make sure you get your golden tickets fast!”

The Australian premiere has been secured exclusively for Sydney by the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW, and will be a major drawcard for visitors to NSW.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is perhaps Roald Dahl’s best-known story and has proved to be one of the most enduring children’s books of all time.

The story of Charlie Bucket, the five Golden Tickets, the Oompa-Loompas and the amazing Willy Wonka has become firmly embedded in our culture since it was first published in 1964.

Conservative estimates suggest the original book has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It is now available in 60 languages.

Roald Dahl began working on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1961, but its origins can be traced all the way back to Roald's own childhood.

In his autobiography, Boy, he tells us how, while at school in England, he and his fellow Repton students were engaged as 'taste testers' for a chocolate company - something that seems to have started him thinking about chocolate factories and inventing rooms long before Mr Wonka was on the scene. But when he came to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the story went through several drafts until the story as we now know it was released in 1964.

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for the film release of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It was a process that came with some difficulties, but the film went on to become a classic, with its now-iconic depictions of many of the story's key elements, from Golden Tickets to Everlasting Gobstoppers.

In 2005, 15 years after Roald’s death, renowned filmmaker Tim Burton released his own adaptation of the book. His Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starred Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka.

In 2010 The Golden Ticket, an opera based on the story composed by Peter Ash with libretto by Donald Sturrock, premiered in St Louis, USA.

Then in 2013, a new musical production opened in London’s West End, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka, where it ran for over three and a half years, with a reworked version opening on Broadway in April 2017 directed by Jack O’Brien.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory features direction by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, music by Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Grammy and Tony Award winners Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, a book by Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre David Greig, choreography by Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Joshua Bergasse, and includes additional songs by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley from the 1971 Warner Bros motion picture.

Scenic and costume design is by five-time Tony Award nominee Mark Thompson, lighting design by four-time Tony Award nominee Japhy Weideman, sound design by Andrew Keister, projection design by Jeff Sugg, puppet and illusion design by Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Basil Twist, and music supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck.

Now it’s Australia’s chance to experience the wonders of Wonka like never before - get ready for the Oompa-Loompas, incredible inventions, the great glass elevator and more, more, more at this everlasting showstopper!

Don't miss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Capitol Theatre from January 8, 2019.

ABOUT ROALD DAHL AND HIS LEGACY

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was a spy, ace fighter-pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The BFG and many more brilliant stories. He remains the World’s No.1 storyteller.

Sitting in a hut at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by odd bits and pieces such as a suitcase (used as a footrest), his own hipbone (which he’d had replaced) and a heavy ball of metal foil (made from years’ worth of chocolate wrappers), he went on to write some of the world’s best-loved children’s stories. His first children’s story, James and the Giant Peach, published in 1961, was a hit and every subsequent book became a best-seller.

Today, his stories are available in 60 languages and, by a conservative estimate, he has sold more than 250 million books.

Many of these stories have also been adapted for stage and screen, including the 1971 film classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wes Anderson’s acclaimed Fantastic Mr Fox, the multi award-winning Matilda The Musical from the RSC with music by Tim Minchin, and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster The BFG.

The latest adaptation is the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which opened on Broadway in April 2017 following three Golden years on London’s West End, and will head off on tour around the US from September.

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