National Theatre to produce musical adaptation of THE WITCHES book/film

London’s National Theatre is poised to present a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches during the 2018 holiday season.

The musical, according to The Daily Mail, is being developed by Olivier-winning director Lyndsey Turner and will feature a score by James Humphreys.

The novel tells the story of a young boy who happens upon a group of witches intent on exterminating all children through various spells and curses, from placing them in paintings to feeding them chocolate that turns them to mice. Anjelica Huston starred as the Grand High Witch in the 1990 film adaptation.

http://www.playbill.com/article/musical-adaptation-of-the-witches-lehman-brothers-drama-from-sam-mendes-and-more-tapped-for-national-theatre

Updated On: 9/29/17 at 12:08 PM

This book is amazing, one of my favorites from childhood. Hopefully the musical is able to capture the darkness of the book in the musical, while still maintaining the absurdity.

The Witches is a perfect source material for a musical! I can't wait to see what they do with it.



Slightly bummed Tim Minchin isn't involved.

Updated On: 9/29/17 at 12:28 PM

GeorgeandDot said: "Oh my, this will be extremely difficult to adapt. I'm very intrigued as to how they'll do it."

Yes I was just thinking that... what will they do when he becomes a mouse?! Nothing seems more childish than someone in a giant mouse suit.

This is thrilling.

I remember suggesting this as a musical a while back and was told the logistics wouldn’t work. I’m glad someone is trying. The film is one of my all time favorites. I usually rank it alongside Hocus Pocus and the little vampire when it comes to children/Halloween films. Donna Murphy would be great as the grand high witch.

Wow! Such fantastic news, this was a book I read over and over again. If they can get the tone right(as some of you recently mentioned) this could be an absolute masterpiece. Whoever the grand High Witch is is bound to kill it. Aah! So excited!!