Basil Twist News

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is gearing up to take the show on the road! Hear what the cast and creatives have to say about what makes this musical so delicious!

Four of the Golden Ticket winners and other members of the cast of the spectacular new musical Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been announced today. Roald Dahl's delicious tale will be playing only in Sydney at Sydney's Capitol Theatre from 5 January 2019.

This 'eye-opening, life-affirming, unmissable' (TIME Magazine) Tony Award-winning play by Simon Stephens comes to Virginia Rep's November Theatre this Fall. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time opens Friday, September 21st, and runs through Sunday, October 14th, with two preview performances on Wednesday, September 19th and Thursday, September 20th. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Mark Haddon.

Complete casting has been announced for the national tour of Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY which will launch this September.

HERE's Board of Directors announces that long-time Producing/Executive Director Kim Whitener will step down from HERE Art Center this fall to return to creative producing and consulting with her company KiWi Productions, where she will work with a range of US artists and companies primarily in the contemporary opera-theater and music-theater worlds.

The Willy Wonka and Charlies have been announced for the national tour. Broadway veteran Noah Weisberg (South Pacific, Enron, Elf, Legally Blonde) will star as the extraordinary chocolate maker, Willy Wonka, with Henry Boshart (age 10), Collin Jeffery (age 11) and Rueby Wood (age 11), alternating in the title role of Charlie Bucket. Full casting will be announced at a later date. 'We are thrilled to bring this captivating production on the road and are so excited for Broadway's Noah Weisberg to bring his immense talent to the role of Willy Wonka and to introduce our three Charlie Buckets to audiences across North America,' said producers Mark Kaufman, Kevin McCormick and Caro Newling.

Beginning tomorrow, July 28, designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist will perform in his singular creation, Symphonie Fantastique, during all Saturdayevening performances. The 20th-anniversary production, which has received near universal acclaim and is scheduled to close on September 2, will include Twist on July 28, August 4, 11, 18, 25 and September 1 at 8:30pm. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

HERE is thrilled to present Cabaret Fantastique, a culminating concert event featuring pianist Christopher O'Riley who performs his haunting solo piano arrangements of songs by Radiohead, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Elliott Smith, Portishead, and Sun Kil Moon. Master puppeteer and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist and company members from Symphonie Fantastique will accompany O'Riley with new puppet work. The one-of-a-kind event will take place on August 19 at 7pm. Known to millions as the host of NPR's From the Top, O'Riley is currently performing live piano accompaniment for Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, which continues performances at HERE until September 2.

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2018-2019 season, which marks the OBIE-winning institution's 26th year of producing of daring new hybrid performance by new artists from all disciplines - theatre, music, art, dance, puppetry, and media art.

The new production of Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller, officially opened last night, Sunday, July 22. The vibrant nine-member ensemble led by director choreographer Joshua Bergasse brings new life to more than 30 classic songs including 'Stand by Me,' 'I'm a Woman,' 'Hound Dog,' 'Fools Fall In Love,' 'On Broadway,' 'Yakety Yak,' 'Pearl's a Singer,' 'Treat Me Nice,' 'There Goes My Baby,' 'Love Potion #9,' 'Jailhouse Rock,' and 'Spanish Harlem.'

Broadway in Cincinnati is thrilled to announce that Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY will go on sale Friday, July 20 at 9 am.  Tickets will be available at the Aronoff Center box office downtown at 650 Walnut Street, online at CincinnatiArts.org or by phone at 513.621.ARTS.  Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY will play the Aronoff Center, October 23 - November 4 as a part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati 18/19 Season presented by TriHealth.  Group orders of 10 or more may be placed by calling 513.369.4363.     

PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now is pleased to announce programming for the seventh annual festival of fresh opera-theatre & music-theatre running January 5-13, 2019, featuring eight presentations that "shift the whole paradigm of what opera is and can be" (New York Observer).

Shea's Performing Arts Center announced today that tickets for Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will go on sale to the public on Thursday, July 19. A priority offer will begin at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 17 and conclude at 10 p.m. Wednesday, July 18. To secure priority offer tickets, use the code FACTORY.

The chocolate factory is coming to a city near you! Full dates and cities have been announced for the upcoming North American tour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The tour will launch at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, before bringing Wonka's world of pure imagination to previously announced engagements in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and more. Casting will be announced at a later date.

Due to huge demand, new tickets to the spectacular new musical Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will go on sale on Friday 22 June at 4pm. Roald Dahl's treasured tale will be playing at Sydney's Capitol Theatre from 8 January 2019, produced by John Frost, Craig Donnell, Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Langley Park Productions and Neal Street Productions.

HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to close their 25th anniversary season with the commissioned world premiere of American Weather, a new work by director and designer Chris Green, a member of the HERE Artist Residency Program since 2016. With a bittersweet verve, American Weather is a visceral work of material performance inspired by daily life in America.

On June 4, the OBIE-winner HERE will honor Tony Award-winner Eve Ensler and HERE's board chair and star attorney Bethany Haynes at Out of the Box for 25 Years, HERE's 25th Anniversary Gala. The evening celebrates HERE's quarter of a century history as a leader in thinking creatively, reimagining performance practice and taking audiences to new frontiers. HERE has been a champion for unconventional theater artists, puppeteers, musicians, and dancers for 25 years including Ensler, whose groundbreaking The Vagina Monologues was developed and premiered at HERE in 1996.

10 Hairy Legs, the all male repertory dance company, dèbuts at Baryshnikov Arts Center for its sixth consecutive New York Season for four performances June 7 -10. The program features World Premieres by Bessie Award Nominee and company member Nicholas Sciscione, and Yin Yue. Works by Al Blackstone, Raja Feather Kelly and Christopher Williams complete the program. Sciscione will perform his solo work and Ofer Pelz his original composition at all performances. Tickets are $25 for Adults and $20 for Students and Groups of 10 or more through 10HL.org.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.

In response to overwhelming demand and near universal critical acclaim, Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist - extends its 20th anniversary engagement to July 15. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.