West End Musical Creates Wonka’s Factory Out Of Biscuit in Waterstones Piccadilly Window To Celebrate Bo...

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the hit West End musical and Biscuiteers, supported by Tate & Lyle, have recreated the chocolate factory in Piccadilly.

The 6m x 1.7m edible chocolate biscuit installation, based on the Olivier-nominated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical stage set, was designed and created by Biscuiteers and unveiled by Willy Wonka and Charlie yesterday (8 April).

The entire chocolate factory has been recreated so that passers-by can look through this 3D structure into each room and see Augustus Gloop being sucked in to the chocolate river in the chocolate room, Violet Beauregarde blowing up into a blueberry in the inventing room, Veruca Salt being thrown down the rubbish chute in the nut room and Mike Teavee being shrunk in the television room.

It took Biscuiteers 300 hours to design, bake, build and decorate the edible Chocolate Factory made using over 100kg of biscuit dough and 200kg Tate & Lyle sugar. The display will remain in the branch for four weeks.

Cast members, Charlie and Willy Wonka, unveiled the window display on April 8 and members of the hit show’s cast will read extracts from Dahl’s original story in the Piccadilly branch later in the month.

60 x 60cm versions of the edible chocolate factory will be on display in Waterstones shops in Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Greenwich, Chiswick, King’s Road, Richmond, Hampstead and Kensington.

Other elements of the partnership will involve the installation of a pair of Wonka factory gates into the children’s section of Waterstones Piccadilly, as well as a series of fun Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed family events.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has quickly become one of the West End’s most popular and successful stage musicals. It has broken West End box office records at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where it has been seen by over half a million people since it opened in June 2013. The production has been nominated for seven Olivier Awards – the winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Opera House on 13 April.