Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (franchise) co-production with American Lyric Theater and Wexford Festival Opera. A musical based on the novel, titled "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" premiered at the West End's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in May 2013 and officially opened on 25 June. The show is directed by Sam Mendes, with new songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, and stars Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka. The production broke records for weekly ticket sales. Coincidentally, Hodge was also the voice of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory audiobook, as part of a package of Roald Dahl CDs read by celebrities. There are two "Charlie
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (musical) March 2017 with the opening night on 23 April 2017. Reviews of the production were mixed to negative, with some critics citing poor staging and restructuring of the story as primary issues. The Broadway production is notably darker than the original production, with the four rotten Golden Ticket winners meeting grisly ends in the second act. For this production, the characters of Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee are played by adult actors, unlike the child actors in the London production, while the character of Charlie is still filled by a child actor. On 15 November 2017,