<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (July 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> After Timothy Allen McDonald and Leslie Bricusse successfully developed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a musical, using songs from the 1971 film adaptation, Dahl's widow Liccy granted the rights to develop James and the Giant Peach to McDonald . McDonald started assembling the creative team in 2005 . Lynn Ahrens, Freddie Gershon and Michael Kerker recommended the songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul in 2008 . After an audition where Pasek and Paul wrote three potential songs in a week, including two that would be worked into the show (James's first solo, "On Your Way Home" and "Property of Spiker and Sponge"), McDonald hired the duo . </P> <P> The musical premiered from 21 October 2010 to 21 November 2010 at Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Connecticut . The musical itself was quite different from its source material, but honored it . Throughout the two - month run, the show was revised . The cast featured young actors Ellis Gage and Justin Lawrence Hall playing James, Steve Rosen as Marvo The Magician, Ruth Gotschall as Aunt Spiker and Denny Dillon as Aunt Sponge . The show also featured Jim Stanek as the Grasshopper, Chelsea Packard (credited as Chelsea Krombach) as the Ladybug, Kate Wetherhead as the Spider, Destan Owens as the Earthworm, Nick Gaswirth as the Centipede, also with Nicholas Park, Minami Yusi, Marissa Palley, and Jessica Fontana (credited as Jessica Hershberg) in the Ensemble . The dance troupe "Pilobolus" were a large part of the production bringing an innovative theatrical technique of using their bodies to create most of the set, specifically using shadow technique to create a majority of the special effects . The production featured musical direction by Chris Fenwick and Dance arrangements by Sam Davis . Pasek and Paul stated during the Goodspeed staging "we decided from the beginning that we were not writing a show for children (...) we are taking some of Dahl's darkness and expanding it even more ." </P> <P> A work - in - progress version of the musical played at the 2012 New Visions / New Voices festival, held at the Kennedy Center in May 2012 for plays in development written for young audiences . The 2012 Kennedy Center production was directed by Marty Johnson and Timothy Allen McDonald . </P>

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