We all need whimsy: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical" review: Michael Dalke's Willy Wonka, Karylle's reimagined Mrs. Bucket, and the set design that finally does Roald Dahl justice on stage. Manila run at The Theatre at Solaire ends July 26.
ARTS & CULTURETHE LIL THINGS I LIKEREVIEW
7/16/20263 min read
A factory built from light
That's how I first met him, in the 1971 film with Gene Wilder, watched on the family VCR sometime in the 1980s. It was my introduction to the chocolate river, the golden tickets, and the Oompa Loompas, who remain, to this day, my favorite part of this entire universe. Tim Burton's version came next, with Johnny Depp playing Wonka like a man who hadn't left the factory, or his own head, in years. Then came Timothée Chalamet, in an origin story that, if we're honest, belonged to a CGI-shrunk Hugh Grant the moment he showed up.
So when I sat down at The Theatre at Solaire on July 9 for the gala night performance of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical," I had decades of adaptations to measure it against, and a real question in mind: Could a stage, with its fixed proscenium and its very human limits, actually pull off what film had three separate chances to get right?
It did. More than that, it delighted.
My history with Willy Wonka goes back to a Betamax tape.
The set is the star before a single actor speaks. Jeff Sugg's video and projection design does something close to sleight of hand, using 3D hologauze to build rooms that shouldn't be able to exist on a stage this size, let alone shift between them in seconds. It's the kind of design that makes you lean forward instead of squinting to figure out how it's done.
The score carries its weight, too. "Pure Imagination" and "The Candy Man" are still doing the emotional work they've always done. I caught myself humming the former on the drive home. But Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman's new numbers, particularly the one built around Violet Beauregarde and her father, hold their own against those old standards, which is no small feat when the songs they're standing next to are the reason most of us know this story at all.
Dalke's Wonka, and those who orbit him
Michael Dalke plays Wonka for the Manila run, with Oliver Wong as Charlie Bucket, alternating with Cohen Toukatly, whom I caught in a preview back in January. Karylle takes on Mrs. Bucket, alternating with Jill-Christine Wiley, and Steve McCoy plays Grandpa Joe.
Having seen an earlier preview, I went in curious about how Dalke would settle into the role. He's found his own register: eccentric and manic in the moments that call for it, but never so unhinged that Wonka stops feeling like a person underneath the showmanship. It's a difficult balance and he lands it.
Wong is young, and it shows in his voice and delivery in a way that works in his favor rather than against it. The best scene in the show, for me, was his exchange with Wonka in the candy shop, right as the golden ticket winners are being announced. There's a real nervous energy between them there, the kind you can't quite fake.
The production also takes a liberty with the source material, making Mrs. Bucket a widow rather than simply poor. It gives Karylle more to work with, and she uses it well; her performance leans heartfelt and yearning in a way the character doesn't always get room for. McCoy, meanwhile, plays Grandpa Joe steady and warm, with comic timing that traces back to his Monty Python roots showing through in every scene he's given room to work.
Michael Dalke as Willy Wonka
The moments that stuck
The golden ticket winners each get their number, and while I won't spoil the details, Mike Teavee's "Vidiots" number toward the end was a highlight, alongside the ever-reliable Oompa Loompas. James Roberts IV's turn as Mrs. Green deserves its own mention. And somewhere in the middle of it all, Wonka breaks into a karaoke classic that, by all logic, shouldn't fit the show at all. It does anyway, seamlessly, which is its own kind of magic trick.
Still a little dark, and that's the point
It's worth remembering, underneath the color and the score, that "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a dark fantasy. It's violent in places, deliberately so (Veruca and Violet...sigh), because Roald Dahl built it to teach a lesson or five, not just to entertain. That edge is still here, wrapped in bright sets and candy-colored costumes, and it's better for keeping it.
Given everything going on around us lately, a little more whimsy isn't a bad thing to ask for. This one's worth catching. Just don't wait too long: the Manila run wraps up on July 26.
Images: GMG Productions