Sam Mendes to direct Willy Wonka for London/Bway

[tazber]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 5:20am

Music by Shaiman

Appologies if this has been posted before.
Link

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 5:51am

Sounds like an almost impossible task to stage. The sets alone would be enormous and expensive as hell.


I wonder if it's ALL new music. Some of the original music is iconic.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 6:07am

It seems a little silly to me for anyone to try and write a new musical version of Chocolate Factory when the Leslie Bricusse movie version is so iconic and has already been satisfyingly adapted for the stage, complete with new songs by Mr. Bricusse. Good luck to Marc trying to come up with anything better than "Pure Imagination". I can't imagine them attempting to augment the existing score since that's already been done by the original composer. I'm sure they'll have more than a few disappointed theatregoers expecting to hear "Pure Imagination", "I've Got a Golden Ticket" and "Oompa-Loompa".

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 6:17am

Actually, I really dislike the current stage version: but I have only seen the "jr." version.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 7:10am

The article mentions that they are working on the sets now and they will indeed be huge, drama.


"a designer is being hired to construct the elaborate chocolate factory."

Updated On: 6/3/10 at 07:10 AM

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 3:17pm

Should it be a musical mesh of the 1971 and 2005 movies?

[Brick]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 3:43pm

Well, according to this (sourceless) article, I wouldn't count on it.

"I’d always heard that part of the studio’s motivation for the 2005 film remake was to curry favor with the estate of Roald Dahl and make the stage musical possible. Even though Dahl adapted his book into the 1971 film Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, he didn't care for the original. "

Looks like if it happening, it won't happen with any of the '71 film version.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 7:41pm

I'm intrigued... apart from Gene Wilder, I hated the '71 film version, so anything new is interesting to me.

[CONAries]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 7:52pm

I love the original film, but I think the bigger, boulder, funner 2005 re-make is the perfect basis for a stage show... just one with a very big budget!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/3/10 at 8:05pm

Let's hope that Mendes becomes familiar with the source material this time. Sources claim that he had no idea of what GYPSY was about when he started rehearsing it.