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.)
Broadway track