Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Moonlight Amphitheatre (Vista, 2026)

There is a specific magic to a children's story staged outdoors after dark - a hillside amphitheatre above the park, the reliably good July night air in Vista, and a chocolate factory rendered at a scale indoor theaters can never quite manage. Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the 2026 summer centerpiece at Moonlight Amphitheatre, the only outdoor theater in North County San Diego with a full Broadway-season production slate, staged with the production values Moonlight has been building for 45 seasons. Bring a blanket or rent a chair. The show runs two hours with intermission, and the open-air setting makes the whole thing feel enormous. It plays July 8 through 25, 2026, at 8pm nightly, with tickets at moonlightstage.com. This is the show the North County theater community will be talking about all summer.