Thursday, January 31, 2019

Day 319- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The New Musical- The Golden Ticket to Pure Imagination




My blog inspiration book, Everything I Need to Know I learned From a Little Golden Book reminds us to “use your imagination”. That is just what Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The New Musical  reminds you to do. The story takes you to a world of imagination when Charlie Bucket and his grandfather find the golden ticket to tour the eccentric Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The musical captures the essence of this iconic story about the innocents of having the child-like ability to dream, imagine and create.   




Reflection   
The 1971 movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, was one of my all time favorite childhood movies. My son loved the Tim Burton 2009 remake with Johnny Depp. Whichever version you prefer, it’s a story about winning a golden ticket to a place where dreams are realities and the opposite of  normal thrives -a place of  "Pure Imagination”. The musical captured all of this with an inventive set, music from the original film ("Candy Man","I've Got a Golden Ticket" and "Pure Imagination"), some new music and of course, the Oompa-Loompas.

The show opened with an introduction to the “The Candy Man” (Benjamin Howes) who was the perfect part humorous, cynical and eccentric, Willy Wonka. We soon met Charlie (Henry Boshart)* who sang his way into our heart as the boy with little monetary positions but with  bountiful kindness and dreams. Everyone rootes for  him to get that golden ticket to the factory. 

The iconic bratty kids: sausage glutton, Augustus Gloop (Matt Wood ); spoiled, Veruca (Jessica Cohen); bubble gum chewing, Violet (Brynn Williams); and video addict, Mike Teavee (Daniel Quadrino); all met their expected demise during the factory tour. My all-time favorite scenes are the blueberry expanding Violet rolling across the stage and shrinking Mike Teavee trapped in the television.  

The Oompa -Loompas, which were a hybrid of actors with puppet like bodies, stole the show in the second half. They elicited laughter each time they entered. 



Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the New Musical takes you on a journey to this  wonderfully wacky world were only dreamers belong. As the show concludes, Willy Wonka  in the song “The View From Here", reminds  Charlie  that they “make something out of nothing." We celebrate Charlie’s acquisition of the chocolate  factory but more importantly, we celebrate  that child-like ability to imagine, dream and create.

(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory runs until February 3, 2019 at the Benedum Center.  For your golden ticket and for more on The PNC Broadway series go to trustarts.org.)

*Charlie is also played by Collin Jeffery and Rueby Wood during certain performances

Spiritual Source 
 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the spring of life (Proverbs 4:23)

Other Sources
Broadway track