Menier Chocolate Factory Gets Torched

The Menier Chocolate Factory, known to Broadway audiences for their pared down revivals of the American musicals Sunday in the Park with George, A Little Night Music, and La Cage Aux Folles, has announced its new season.

The Factory will bring London its first major revival of Harvey Fierstein's breakthrough play Torch Song Trilogy. Variety.com describes the play as an "evening of three linked plays focusing on a drag queen and the search for acceptance won the play Tony in 1983." The play, in a production to be directed by Tony-winning actor Douglas Hodge (Best Actor in a Musical 2010 for La Cage Aux Folles), will perform a limited 10-week engagement starting May 30.

Ian Talbot, who directed the Factory's earlier production of The Invisible Man, is coming back to the Factory to direct Charley's Aunt, which will run September 20 through November 10. "The 1892 English comedy most famous in the U.S. for Frank Loesser's tuner adaptation, Where's Charley."

The last show in the Menier season will bring the directorial debut of actress Maria Friedman, who will direct the Stephen Sondheim / George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, which will run November 16 through Feb 23. The show is often revised, with productions alternating between the original George Furth original and a James Lapine update. Friedman's production will use Lapine's version of the book.