West End's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Extends Thru Nov 2014

The hit West End production of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Sam Mendes, announced today that it has extended its booking period by six months until 1 November 2014. The show had previously been booking until 31 May 2014. The production, which has so far been seen by almost 300,000 people since it began previews in May 2013, is extending its run due to popular demand, releasing almost 400,000 extra tickets.

The producers, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Langley Park Productions and Neal Street Productions also announced that the Official Cast Recording with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman is released today by Sony Music, on CD and for download. The album features the entire cast, led by Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka, and includes every number from the show, including Must Be Believed to Be Seen, Simply Second Nature, Almost Nearly Perfect, as well as the Newley/Bricusse classic Pure Imagination.

Alongside Douglas Hodge, the cast of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory includes Nigel Planer as Grandpa Joe, Clive Carter as Mr Salt, Jasna Ivir as Mrs Gloop, Paul J Medford as Mr Beauregarde, Iris Roberts as Mrs Teavee, Billy Boyle as Grandpa George, Alex Clatworthy as Mrs Bucket, Roni Page as Grandma Josephine,Myra Sands as Grandma Georgina and Jack Shalloo as Mr Bucket.

Full cast: Douglas Hodge, Nigel Planer, Clive Carter, Jasna Ivir, Paul J Medford, Iris Roberts, Billy Boyle, Alex Clatworthy, Roni Page, Myra Sands, Jack Shalloo, Joe Allen, David Birch, Alex Louize Bird, Michelle Bishop, Simon Campbell, Matthew Clark, Jennifer Davison, Ross Dawes, Nia Fisher, Kate Graham, Derek Hagen, Clare Halse, Mark Iles, Daniel Ioannou, Kieran Jae, Mireia Mambo Bokele, Jane McMurtrie, Natalie Moore-Williams, Sherrie Pennington, Damien Poole, Antony Reed, Paul Saunders and Jay Webb.

When Charlie wins a golden ticket to the weird and wonderful Wonka Chocolate Factory, it's the chance of a lifetime to feast on the sweets he's always dreamed of. But beyond the gates astonishment awaits, as down the sugary corridors, and amongst the incredible edible delights, the five lucky winners discover not everything is as sweet as it seems.

Roald Dahl's deliciously dark tale of young Charlie Bucket and the mysterious confectioner Willy Wonka comes to life in a brand new West End musical directed by Academy Award winner 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(Grammy winners for Hairspray; Smash), a book by award-winning playwright and adaptor David Greig(Midsummer; Creditors; Tintin In Tibet), set and costume designs by Mark Thompson (Mamma Mia!; One Man, Two Guvnors) and choreography by Peter Darling (Billy Elliot; Matilda).

Douglas Hodge is an Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor and four-time Olivier-nominated actor/director, who has worked at The National Theatre, the RSC, Shakespeare's Globe and The Royal Court Theatre. On Broadway, he recently starred at the American Airlines Theatre in the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac, for the Roundabout Theatre Company. He won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his Broadway debut in La Cage Aux Folles, having already won the Olivier Award for the same performance in London. For ten years he worked closely with Harold Pinter, and he was Associate Director at the Donmar from 2007 to 2009. He has released two albums of his own compositions 'Cowley Road Songs' and 'Nightbus', and won the Stiles and Drewe 2012 Best New Song Award for 'Powercut'. Alongside numerous television credits, his feature films include Vanity Fair, Robin Hood, Diana - in which he plays Paul Burrell, butler to Diana, Princess of Wales - and the soon to be released Serena.

This world premiere musical is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions andLangley Park Productions.

Further information is available from the website: www.CharlieandtheChocolateFactory.com

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LISTINGS INFORMATION

Roald Dahl's

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Directed by Sam Mendes

Book by David Greig

Music by Marc Shaiman

Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman

Set and costume design by Mark Thompson

Choreography by Peter Darling

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5JF

Box Office: 0844 858 8877

To Book online visit: www.CharlieandtheChocolateFactory.com

Currently booking until 01 November 2014

Performance Times:

Monday - Saturday 7.30pm, Wednesday & Saturday 2.30pm

Ticket Prices:

£25.00, £32.50, £39.50, £49.50, £67.50

Booking fees apply

Group Rates:

12+ Group Rate

Top price seats reduced to £45.00

Valid Mon-Fri evening & Wed matinee performances

Exclusion weeks apply

Subject to availability

Education Rates:

10+ Schools Rate

Seats up to £49.50 reduced to £25.00

Valid Mon-Thu evening and Wed matinee performances

Exclusion weeks apply

Subject to availability

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 Painkillerwith 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: Dipo Faloyin

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.