Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka is a musical play that combined elements of both Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of the eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka....

and of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 musical film adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. The film tells the story of Charlie Bucket as he receives a golden ticket and visits Willy...

with newly created material. The play has two versions: a version for a small group of adult actors and a "Broadway Junior" version for larger groups of schoolchildren. The two versions make quite different choices about how to present the play.

Writers

After getting approval from the Dahl estate, Tim McDonald and Leslie Bricusse

Leslie Bricusse

Leslie Bricusse is an English composer, lyricist, and playwright.Although best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, Bricusse has worked with many other composers. He was educated at University College School in London and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...

 worked together on the play. McDonald said "Our challenge was to create a live theatrical musical event that satisfied your expectations of the book and the film -- but hopefully gave you another experience also." They used music that Leslie Bricusse and his former musical collaborator Anthony Newley

Anthony Newley

Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...

had created for the 1971 movie, and Bricusse also wrote new songs with a "retro-sounding" style that matched the earlier music. (Anthony Newley had died in 1999 and was not involved in the new adaptation.)

Version for adult actors

The version for adult actors was made at the request of the Kennedy Center and premiered there in 2004 Aimed at a young audience of five years or older the play has been described as a shorter "bite-sized" version of the story. It has been cast with as few as seven or eight actors. Each actor has multiple roles and some parts are played by large puppets. Both the original performance at the Kennedy Center and a later one at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater used minimal settings and special effects.

"Junior" version

The "Junior" version was made with a different set of assumptions about the cast and resources directors would have at their disposal. Since school plays might cast entire classes but have few financial resources, the Junior version was created for the needs of "an ever-expandable and scalable show" that might have a budget that is "the equivalent of what a Broadway show would spend on the lead actor's shoes".

External Links

• Broadway Junior Collection
• The Kennedy Center
• MTI's slide show of the premiere