Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka (play)

Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka is a musical that combines elements of both Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and of the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with newly created material. The musical has several versions: the original version which premiered in 2004, the Junior version, the Kids version, and the Theatre for Young Audiences version. All are owned by Music Theatre International, the company that owns the Willy Wonka license.

After getting approval from the Dahl estate, Tim McDonald and Leslie Bricusse worked together on the play. McDonald said "Our challenge was to create a live theatrical musical event that satisfied your expectations of the book and the film – but hopefully gave you another experience also." They used music that Leslie Bricusse and his former musical collaborator Anthony Newley had created for the 1971 movie, and Bricusse also wrote new songs with a "retro-sounding" style that matched the earlier music. (Anthony Newley had died in 1999 and was not involved in the new adaptation.)

Willy Wonka introduces himself to the audience and summons his Oompa-Loompa servants, announcing that he is retiring and he must choose a new successor when he does ("Pure Imagination/The Golden Age of Chocolate).

Wonka, acting as narrator, introduces us to the impoverished Bucket family: Mr. And Mrs. Bucket, their young son Charlie, and Charlie's four bedridden grandparents, Grandpa George, Grandma Georgina, Grandpa Joe, and Grandma Josephine. Grandpa Joe assures Charlie that he is destined to work for Wonka making candy, just like he did when he was younger. Unfortunately, Wonka fired all his workers years ago after one of his candy recipes had been stolen and sold to his competitors and locked the gates of his factory forever. Mysteriously, however, the factory has continued to produce candy. But nobody ever goes in and nobody ever comes out.

A group of children gather outside Charlie's house, each clutching a nickel to buy a Wonka bar from the candy shop ("Candy Man"). Charlie is the only child too poor to buy any candy, but the candy shop owner treats him to a lollipop and a copy of yesterday's newspaper.

Charlie takes the paper home, and the Buckets learn from it that Wonka has announced a contest where five lucky children will go on a tour of his factory and get a lifetime supply of chocolate at the end, only if they find a Golden Ticket hidden in the Wonka Bars.

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