Tickets are now on group sale for the eagerly awaited new musical in London Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Despite the rumours that Russell Brand was to star as Willy Wonka following his performance at the Olympic closing ceremony the starring role has gone to Tony award winning actor Douglas Hodge.
Douglas Hodge trained for the theatre at the Royal Academy of Arts and has achieved great success on stage in plays by Harold Pinter.
Hodge has also appeared at shows in London at the National Theatre and the Playhouse theatre.
In the 2005 hugely popular musical show of Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre in London Hodge played Nathan Detroit opposite Ewan McGregor as Sky Masterson.
In 2006, he took the lead part in Titus Andronicus, at Shakespeare’s Globe. He made his West End directorial debut with See How They Run, a 1940’s wartime farce, preceded by a successful UK tour.
Douglas Hodge’s rise to stardom followed his 2008 starring role in the hugely acclaimed London revival of the musical La Cage aux Folles which played originally at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The show transferred to London’s West End at the Playhouse Theatre to great critical acclaim and Douglas won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Hodge’s popularity extended worldwide as audiences flocked to see the show in London.
The London show transferred to Broadway in 2010, with Douglas Hodge and Kelsey Grammer as Albin and Georges, respectively. Hodge repeated his London theatre success when he also won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance.
A 2011 revival of John Osborne’s play Inadmissible Evidence at the Donmar Theatre in London saw Douglas Hodge take on his most challenging and outstanding performance to date in the West End as Maitland, the lawyer in crisis. Theatre critics were unanimous in praise of Hodge’s portrayal, “a great actor doing complete justice to a dark masterpiece”.
In 2010, Douglas Hodge appeared as Brick Bolenger in the BBC comedy Outnumbered, an American therapist who was Auntie Angela’s (played by Samantha Bond) husband.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the musical has it’s World premiere at the Drury Lane theatre in London’s West End in the Summer of 2013. The musical is based on the 1964 children’s book by Roald Dahl. The deliciously dark tale features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been adapted in to two major films. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1971 starring Gene Wilder in the role of Willy Wonka, and a more recent remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005, starring Johnnie Depp in the leading role.
Renown director, Sam Mendes directs this latest version and the first time it has been staged as a show in London.
For information on individuals sales please visit the site again soon.
