Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alums and faculty members are in the cast and creative team of the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Illinois – the nation’s largest musical theatre subscription house. The production – which marks the show’s Professional Regional Premiere – opened November 17, 2023, and runs through January 14, 2024. For tickets and information, click here.

The show’s cast includes Columbia College alums Jared David Michael Grant ’12 and Terrell Armstrong ’19, both graduates of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Musical Theatre, and Dakota Hughes ’15, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Musical Theatre Performance.

The show’s projections designer is Columbia College alum Paul Deziel ’14, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Technical Theatre program.

Columbia College Theatre Department faculty member Susan Gosdick is the show’s dialect coach. The musical director is former Columbia College Theatre Department student and staff accompanist Kory Danielson. And Broadway veteran Jim Corti, a former Musical Theatre Dance instructor in the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Musical Theatre Program, is Paramount Theatre’s artistic director.