Live Theater
February 7, 2014
Alex Jennings Named as New Willy Wonka
(February 7, 2014 – London) – Alex Jennings will play Willy Wonka in the record-breaking West End production of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the role currently played by Douglas Hodge.
Jennings’s first performance will be on Monday 19 May 2014.
Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” has quickly become one of the West End’s most popular and successful stage musicals. It has broken records at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where it has been seen by over half a million people since it opened in June 2013. It is currently taking bookings until 30 May 2015.
Alex Jennings is the only performer to have won an Olivier Award in the Drama, Musical and Comedy categories, winning Best Actor for “Peer Gynt” (1996), Best Actor in a Musical for “My Fair Lady” (2003), and Best Comedy Performance for “Too Clever By Half” (1988). He is an Associate at the National Theatre and the RSC and has had a wide and varied career on stage, screen and radio. In 2008, he made his operatic debut in Bernstein’s “Candide.”
Alex Jennings’ credits at the National Theatre include “Untold Stories” (West End), “The Habit of Art,” “Stuff Happens,” “The Winter’s Tale” and “The Relapse.” He is an Associate Actor at the RSC, where his credits include “Hamlet,” “Peer Gynt” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Other theatre includes “The Liar,” “The Wild Duck,” “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “The Country Wife.” His screen career includes “The Queen,” “Smiley’s People,” “Hancock and Joan” and “Cranford.”
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is directed by 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, a book by award-winning playwright and adaptor David Greig, set and costume designs by Mark Thompson and choreography by Peter Darling.
The Official Cast Recording album is available on Sony Records, on CD and download.
This world premiere musical is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Langley Park Productions.
www.CharlieandtheChocolateFactory.com
Box Office: 0844 858 8877
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5JF
Booking until 30 May 2015
The Producers Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures:
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, responsible for developing and producing first-class productions for the stage. In addition to this production, Theatre Ventures recently premiered the original musical “Secondhand Lions” at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre and is readying a new production of the Stephen King drama “Misery” for Broadway, with Oscar-winner Bill Goldman adapting his 1990 screenplay for the stage. Theatre Ventures is actively developing a number of other productions, including musical adaptations of “Beetlejuice” and “Dave,” and is also involved with several co-productions with award-winning Broadway, film and television producers, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of “The Wizard of Oz” currently in Toronto and on tour soon in the USA. During the 2012 holiday season, Theatre Ventures was represented on Broadway by the return of its hit “Elf: The Musical,” which broke the Hirschfeld Theatre's box office record five out of the nine weeks of its inaugural limited holiday engagement in 2010. In addition to its development and co-production slate, Theatre Ventures also has numerous licensed properties in production worldwide, including the Olivier-winning “Top Hat” and Olivier-nominated “The Bodyguard,” as well as “The Color Purple,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “42nd Street,” “Hairspray,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “Singin' in the Rain” along with the upcoming “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Diner.” 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 entertainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting. Neal Street Productions:
Theatre Producer Caro Newling Formed in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling to produce film, television and theatre. Previously Mendes & Newling established and ran the Donmar Warehouse 1992 - 2002. Recent theatre includes: “The Bridge Project,” a three-year transatlantic venture with the Old Vic/Brooklyn Academy of Music presenting five classic plays for world-wide stages, directed by Sam Mendes: “The Winter’s Tale”/“The Cherry Orchard” with Simon Russell Beale and Rebecca Hall, “The Tempest”/“As You Like It” with Stephen Dillane and Juliet Rylance, “Richard III” with Kevin Spacey. Also “Shrek the Musical” by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire produced with DreamWorks Animation at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Previously: “Three Days of Rain” with James McAvoy, “The Vertical Hour” with Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, “The Painkiller” with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, and World/UK premieres of “The House of Special Purpose” by Heidi Thomas, “All About My Mother” by Sam Adamson, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Steve Canny & Peepolykus, “Days of Wine and Roses” new version by Owen McCafferty, “Anna in the Tropics” by Nilo Cruz and “Fuddy Meers” by David Lindsay-Abaire. West End/Broadway transfers: “South Downs”/“The Browning Version,” “Enron” (Chichester Festival Theatre) “Hamlet,” “Mary Stuart” and “Red” (Donmar Warehouse), “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Merrily We Roll Along” (Menier Chocolate Factory). Film and TV includes: “Call the Midwife,” “Stuart A Life Backwards,” “Starter for Ten,” “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “Jarhead,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Away We Go,” “Blood” and “The Hollow Crown” for BBC Two featuring “Richard II” (dir Rupert Goold) “Henry IV Part 1 & Part 2” (dir Richard Eyre) and “Henry V” (dir Thea Sharrock). NSP has recently welcomed Nicolas Brown as co-director to work on forthcoming TV & film projects. Staff List:
Neal Street Productions
Directors: Nicolas Brown, Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes, Caro Newling
Head of Production: Milly Leigh
Assistant to Sam Mendes: Melanie Jones
Executive Co-ordinator: Caroline Reynolds
General Assistant: Jennifer Mordi Langley Park Productions:
Kevin McCormick (Producer) is President of Langley Park Productions, a studio-based production company at Warner Bros. McCormick recently produced the romantic drama “The Lucky One,” starring Zac Efron, and the 2011 comedy “Arthur,” starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren. He was also a producer on “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.”###
Box Office: 0844 858 8877
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5JF
Booking until 30 May 2015
The Producers Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures:
Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures is the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, responsible for developing and producing first-class productions for the stage. In addition to this production, Theatre Ventures recently premiered the original musical “Secondhand Lions” at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre and is readying a new production of the Stephen King drama “Misery” for Broadway, with Oscar-winner Bill Goldman adapting his 1990 screenplay for the stage. Theatre Ventures is actively developing a number of other productions, including musical adaptations of “Beetlejuice” and “Dave,” and is also involved with several co-productions with award-winning Broadway, film and television producers, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of “The Wizard of Oz” currently in Toronto and on tour soon in the USA. During the 2012 holiday season, Theatre Ventures was represented on Broadway by the return of its hit “Elf: The Musical,” which broke the Hirschfeld Theatre's box office record five out of the nine weeks of its inaugural limited holiday engagement in 2010. In addition to its development and co-production slate, Theatre Ventures also has numerous licensed properties in production worldwide, including the Olivier-winning “Top Hat” and Olivier-nominated “The Bodyguard,” as well as “The Color Purple,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “42nd Street,” “Hairspray,” “The Light in the Piazza” and “Singin' in the Rain” along with the upcoming “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Diner.” 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 entertainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting. Neal Street Productions:
Theatre Producer Caro Newling Formed in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling to produce film, television and theatre. Previously Mendes & Newling established and ran the Donmar Warehouse 1992 - 2002. Recent theatre includes: “The Bridge Project,” a three-year transatlantic venture with the Old Vic/Brooklyn Academy of Music presenting five classic plays for world-wide stages, directed by Sam Mendes: “The Winter’s Tale”/“The Cherry Orchard” with Simon Russell Beale and Rebecca Hall, “The Tempest”/“As You Like It” with Stephen Dillane and Juliet Rylance, “Richard III” with Kevin Spacey. Also “Shrek the Musical” by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire produced with DreamWorks Animation at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Previously: “Three Days of Rain” with James McAvoy, “The Vertical Hour” with Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, “The Painkiller” with Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon, and World/UK premieres of “The House of Special Purpose” by Heidi Thomas, “All About My Mother” by Sam Adamson, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Steve Canny & Peepolykus, “Days of Wine and Roses” new version by Owen McCafferty, “Anna in the Tropics” by Nilo Cruz and “Fuddy Meers” by David Lindsay-Abaire. West End/Broadway transfers: “South Downs”/“The Browning Version,” “Enron” (Chichester Festival Theatre) “Hamlet,” “Mary Stuart” and “Red” (Donmar Warehouse), “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Merrily We Roll Along” (Menier Chocolate Factory). Film and TV includes: “Call the Midwife,” “Stuart A Life Backwards,” “Starter for Ten,” “Things We Lost in the Fire,” “Jarhead,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Away We Go,” “Blood” and “The Hollow Crown” for BBC Two featuring “Richard II” (dir Rupert Goold) “Henry IV Part 1 & Part 2” (dir Richard Eyre) and “Henry V” (dir Thea Sharrock). NSP has recently welcomed Nicolas Brown as co-director to work on forthcoming TV & film projects. Staff List:
Neal Street Productions
Directors: Nicolas Brown, Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes, Caro Newling
Head of Production: Milly Leigh
Assistant to Sam Mendes: Melanie Jones
Executive Co-ordinator: Caroline Reynolds
General Assistant: Jennifer Mordi Langley Park Productions:
Kevin McCormick (Producer) is President of Langley Park Productions, a studio-based production company at Warner Bros. McCormick recently produced the romantic drama “The Lucky One,” starring Zac Efron, and the 2011 comedy “Arthur,” starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren. He was also a producer on “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.”