'James and the Giant Peach' Musical Heading to the Stage

Variety reports that a creative team is to be assembled for a musical based on Roald Dahl's 1982 book - James and the Giant Peach.

Bookwriter Timothy A. McDonald, who is co-writer of Emmit Otter's Jug-Band Christmas at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut is said to be planning on a 2009 reading of the new show back at Goodspeed.

In the book, James Henry Trotter is orphaned and must leave his home to live with two cruel spinster aunts. When a giant peach magically grows in his aunts' backyard, he becomes the leader of a group of child-size insects he finds living inside the pit. After the peach rolls into the sea, James masterminds a scheme to fly the peach away from marauding sharks by getting the insects to use their varied talents for the benefit of the others. They escape the dangerous Cloud-Men who throw all kinds of weather at the peach. The crew finally lands on the Empire State Building in New York City. There is a huge city parade after which James lives in the pit of the peach in Central Park and tells stories of his wonderful adventure.

Timothy A. McDonald is a respected educator and playwright (Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley). He is the founding Chairman of the New York based educational musical theatre consulting firm iTheatrics, which partnered with The Jim Henson Company for the initial development of the musical stage version of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.