Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stage musical announced

The beloved children’s book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is being made into a West End musical.

The popular story will be transformed into a musical by award-winning director Sam Mendes and will run through a preview period before officially opening in June 2013.

Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Kevin McCormick have announced that their production of Roald Dahl’s book will open at the London Palladium next year.

David Greig will be compiling a book for the new stage musical with music and lyrics from Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the duo behind the score for Hairspray. Mark Thompson will be head of set and costume design with choreography put together by Peter Darling who won the Olivier Award for his work in Matilda The Musical, another production based on the works of Roald Dahl.

The highly-anticipated musical comes after two film adaptations of Roald Dahl’s classic including Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) starring Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp respectively as the mysterious Willy Wonka.

Tickets will go on sale to the public in October 2012.

For more information, visit www.charlieandthechocolatefactory.co.uk