The infamous Willy Wonka experience is making its way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as a parody musical. More here.
There are few films as universally beloved as 1971’s Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (pictured). Despite author Roald Dahl reportedly hating the film, the public took it to their hearts, with classic songs like Pure Imagination entering the public consciousness.
Even though we now how three screen Wonkas – Gene Wilder, Johnny Depp and Timothee Chalamet (four if you count this) – Wilder’s Wonka is generally considered the definitive version. Tim Burton’s 2005 film, while closer in tone to the book, divided fans, not least due to Depp’s portrayal of Wonka, although it’s certainly true that Tim Burton’s visual style and updated special effects bring the chocolate factory to life in a way the 1971 film couldn’t.
Then, last year’s Wonka made people fall in love with the story all over again, due to Chalamet’s youthful exuberance and the wonderful songs penned by The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon.
Earlier this year, Wonka’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow was shut down after just a day after hundreds of complaints about how the misleading photographs of wonderous excitement did not match the reality – a grubby warehouse with a concrete floor and a couple of half hearted attempts at chocolate themed sculptures. The story went viral, and it wasn’t long before the film rights were picked up by Scotland-based production company Kaledonia Pictures, who plan to make a film about the event’s villain, which was called The Unknown.
The story is also headed to the the stage this summer.
Willy’s Candy Spectacular will run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from the 9th August to the 26th August, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Julie Dawn Cole and Paris Themmen will feature in the cast as narrators.
Cole and Themmen played Veruca Salt and Mike Teevee, respectively, in the 1971 film. In 2011, Cole published a memoir about her time on the set of Willy Wonka called I Want It Now!, which you can order here. Cole will act as narrator from the 9th to the 18th, with Themmen taking over from the 19th to the 26th.
The description for the show reads as follows:
A satire inspired by Glasgow’s Wonka rip-off sensation aka the Fyre Fest of Fudge. From the wreckage, a team of top Broadway and Emmy Award-winning songwriters declare: ‘It’s a MUSICAL!!’ If Ed Wood and PT Barnum got into “environmental experiences” fuelled by a million dreams and zero dollars, this would be this. Songwriters: Emmy nominee Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel and Oates); Emmy winners: Tova Litvin and Doug Rockwell (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series); Broadway songwriters Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (First Date); and Daniel Mertzlufft (Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical).
You can find out more details about the show and book tickets here.
