Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Trailer Released Today

•    CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY TRAILER RELEASED TODAY
•    EXTRA PREVIEW ADDED FOR 17 MAY
•    FIRST REHEARSAL IMAGES NOW AVAILABLE

The official video trailer has been released today for the world premiere stage production of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which stars Olivier and Tony Award®-winning actor Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka and is directed by Academy Award® winner Sam Mendes.

The producers of the show – Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Kevin McCormick - also announced that an extra performance would be added to the start of the run, so the show will now have its first preview on Friday 17th May 2013.

The first images of rehearsals have also been made public, showing Sam Mendes working with Douglas Hodge and other members of the company.

Tickets for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are on sale for performances from 17th May 2013 until the end of the current booking period on Saturday 30th November 2013.

Alongside Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka, the cast includes Nigel Planer as Grandpa Joe, Clive Carter as Mr Salt, Jasna Ivir as Mrs Gloop, Paul J Medford as Mr Beauregarde, Iris Roberts as Mrs Teavee, Billy Boyle as Grandpa George, Roni Page as Grandma Josephine and Myra Sands as Grandma Georgina.

Other cast will include Joe Allen, David Birch, Alex Louize Bird, Michelle Bishop, Matthew Clark, Alex Clatworthy, Jennifer Davison, Ross Dawes, Nia Fisher, Kate Graham, Derek Hagen, Clare Halse, Mark Iles, Daniel Ioannou, Kieran Jae, Mireia Mambo Bokele, Jane McMurtrie, Natalie Moore-Williams, Sherrie Pennington, Damien Poole, Antony Reed, Paul Saunders, Jack Shalloo and Jay Webb.

When Charlie wins a golden ticket to the weird and wonderful Wonka Chocolate Factory, it’s the chance of a lifetime to feast on the sweets he’s always dreamed of. But beyond the gates astonishment awaits, as down the sugary corridors, and amongst the incredible edible delights, the five lucky winners discover not everything is as sweet as it seems.

ROALD DAHL’s deliciously dark tale of young Charlie Bucket and the mysterious confectioner Willy Wonka comes to life in a brand new West End musical directed by Academy Award® winner Sam Mendes.

Featuring ingenious stagecraft, the wonder of the original story that has captivated the world for almost 50 years is brought to life with music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman (Grammy® winners for Hairspray; Smash), a book by award-winning playwright and adaptor David Greig (Midsummer; Creditors; Tintin In Tibet), set and costume designs by Mark Thompson (Mamma Mia!; One Man, Two Guvnors) and choreography by Peter Darling (Billy Elliot; Matilda).

Douglas Hodge is a four time Olivier-nominated actor/director, who has worked at the National Theatre, the RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Court Theatre. On Broadway, he recently starred at the American Airlines Theatre in the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac, for the Roundabout Theatre Company. He won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his Broadway debut in La Cage Aux Folles, having already won the Olivier Award for the same performance in London. For ten years he worked closely with Harold Pinter, and he was Associate Director at the Donmar from 2007 to 2009. He has released two albums of his own compositions 'Cowley Road Songs' and 'Nightbus', and won the Stiles and Drewe 2012 Best New Song Award for ‘Powercut’. Alongside numerous television credits, his feature films include Vanity Fair, Robin Hood, the soon to be released Serena, and Diana – in which he plays Paul Burrell, butler to Diana, Princess of Wales.

This world premiere musical is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Kevin McCormick.

LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Roald Dahl’s
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Directed by Sam Mendes
Book by David Greig
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Set and costume design by Mark Thompson
Choreography by Peter Darling

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5JF
Previews from 17 May 2013
Opening Night: Tuesday 25 June 2013, 7.30pm

Performance Times:
Monday – Saturday 7.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday 2.30pm
(except 20-22 May, 27-28 May, 3-4 June, 5 June (matinee), 12 June (matinee), 26 June (matinee))

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
Written by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in 1964 in the US and in the UK in 1967. The book has been adapted into two Warner Bros. Pictures films: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971 and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005.

WARNER BROS. THEATRE VENTURES
WARNER BROS. THEATRE VENTURES (Producer) is the live stage play division of War¬ner Bros. Entertainment responsible for developing and producing world-class musicals and oth¬er stage productions for the Studio. WBTV has numerous productions in various stages of de¬velopment, including co-productions with award-winning Broadway and film producers. The division recently produced a limited holiday engagement of Elf on Broadway and a developmental production of Misery at the Bucks County Playhouse. WBTV also licenses third-party stage rights to the various properties held within the Studio’s vast media library, including such recent stage produc¬tions as Light in the Piazza, The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, The Color Purple and 42nd Street as well as the current UK production of The Bodyguard and the upcoming Diner and Bridges of Madison County in the US. WBTV’s parent compa¬ny, WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT, a Time Warner Company, is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of creative content and their related businesses, across all current and emerging media and platforms. The company stands at the forefront of every aspect of the enter¬tainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distri¬bution to DVD and Blu-ray, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing and broadcasting.

NEAL STREET PRODUCTIONS
Theatre Producer, Caro Newling. Sam Mendes, Caro Newling and Pippa Harris formed Neal Street in 2003 to produce film, television and theatre. Forthcoming: Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Previously: Shrek The Musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane produced with DreamWorks Animation, The Bridge Project, a three-year transatlantic and global venture with the Old Vic/Brooklyn Academy of Music: The Winter’s Tale, The Cherry Orchard, As You Like It, The Tempest, Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes 2009 - 2012; South Downs/The Browning Version, Three Days of Rain directed by Jamie Lloyd, with James McAvoy, The Vertical Hour directed by Sam Mendes, with Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, The House of Special Purpose directed by Howard Davies, All About My Mother directed by Tom Cairns, The Hound of the Baskervilles directed by Orla O’Loughlin, Days of Wine and Roses directed by Peter Gill, Anna in the Tropics directed by Indhu Rubasingham, Fuddy Meers directed by Angus Jackson. West End/Broadway transfers: Enron directed by Rupert Goold, Red and Hamlet directed by Michael Grandage, Mary Stuart directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Sunday in the Park with George directed by Sam Buntrock. Mendes/Newling established and ran the Donmar Warehouse between 1992 and 2002. Film and TV includes Call the Midwife (second series currently in production), Stuart A Life Backwards, Starter for Ten, Things We Lost in the Fire, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go. Shortly to be released, a series of four Shakespeare films for BBC Two: Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 & Part 2 and Henry V with directors Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre, Thea Sharrock.

KEVIN MCCORMICK (Producer) is President of Langley Park Pictures, a studio-based production company at Warner Bros. McCormick most recently produced the romantic drama The Lucky One, starring Zac Efron, and the 2011 comedy Arthur, starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren. He is also a producer on the recently released drama The Gangster Squad, starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

Previously, McCormick was President of Production at Warner Bros. Pictures. Assuming that post in January 2008, he had day-to-day oversight of, and responsibility for, Warner Bros. Pictures’ creative team and the movies produced by the company, including such award-winning and critically acclaimed films as Gran Torino; The Dark Knight, which broke box office records worldwide and is currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time, domestically; The Hangover, which is, domestically, the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time; and the worldwide hit Sherlock Holmes. Among the studio’s other films during his tenure were Get Smart, the top-grossing Harry Potter franchise, The Informant!, Watchmen and Terminator Salvation. In addition, he oversaw the division’s London office and reported directly to Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

McCormick joined Warner Bros. Pictures in 1999 as Executive Vice President, Production, overseeing such notable films as Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Michael Clayton, Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Matchstick Men, Insomnia, Syriana, and Burton’s Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

McCormick began his career as an executive producer on the film Saturday Night Fever.