WithoutATrace said: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a property has always provided me with happy positive memories. I read the book (and all the other Roald Dahl books) multiple times as a kid, saw the 1971 film countless times, and even enjoyed the more recent Johnny Depp version. When I heard this was transferring from London to Broadway and read that the show was going to be retooled to make it more like the 1971 film so American audiences would embrace it, I was excited and hopeful that this would work. As many others have said in this thread, this hit musical has essentially already been written. Take the movie word for word and you will have a major hit on your hands. Well, I saw the musical last night, and I'm very sorry to report that it was one of the worst musicals I've seen in years, possibly a decade.
Often times when you see a flop musical, at least something is good about it (Jessie Mueller in CLEAR DAY, the score to STEEL PIER, etc.) - but in CHARLIE last night, the book, score, sets (or lack thereof), costumes, direction and acting were all awful, in my opinion. When you enter the theater to see a musical such as IN MY LIFE or FIRST DATE or probably even NERDS (which we never got to see), you go into the show with low expectations because none of these are known properties and you almost go into them expecting them to be bad. But when you enter the beautifully decorated exterior of the Lunt Fontanne Theater to see this extremely well known property CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, you expect to be wowed. That made last night even more of a disappointment.
It's hard to know where to begin, but I'll start with the score. Each of the golden ticket winners was introduced with their own song in Act 1, and each was worse than the next, with Queen of Pop being a standout (negatively). The few songs and snippets of songs from the original film were nice to hear, but when they were surrounded by songs that didn't even attempt to fit in with the rest of the score, nothing felt cohesive. Sadly, the score in Act 2 was even worse. As I was looking and listening on in horror to "When Willy Met Oompa" - a dreadful production number with Willy Wonka surrounded by all of the Oopma Loompas and Violet Beauregard rolling along the stage periodically - I thought to myself, this has to be the ultimate low point of the show and it can't get any worse. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong with the very next number, "Veruca's Nutcracker Suite," in which Veruca Salt was dancing ballet with five squirrels until they eventually pulled her apart. As stated above, given the fact that this was CHARLIE, a well known entity and something we all had high expectations for, I would say that this was one of the most embarrasing musical sequences I have ever seen. Why they didn't stick with the "I Want It Now" Goose with the Golden eggs plotline instead, we will never understand.
I guess I'm moving onto the "sets" next, and yes, I'm putting them in air quotes because there essentially were NO SETS to be had. Another coworker of mine, who has tickets to see this monstrosity in mid-April, told me that the main reason she bought her tickets months ago was to see the Chocolate Factory sets. When I told her that the chocolate room was a green square with astroturf and a dingy fake chocolate lake barely large enough to hold Augustus Gloop, her face sunk, as mine did last night when that "set piece" was rolled out. When you create a show like CHARLIE, one of your main focuses should be to want to elicit audience applause when the chocolate factory set is finally revealed - instead it was met with silence and bewilderment. Not to mention the "set pieces" in Act 1 that were supposed to be the outside of the factory, Charlie's house and the candy shop. Even with all three of those "sets" on the stage, the Lunt Fontanne stage still appeared 80% bare. ADDAMS FAMILY and FINDING NEVERLAND did a significanly better job filling the stage. It's almost as if CHARLIE was designed for the Little Shubert or the Mitzi Newhouse.
The book was also awful. What time period were we supposed to be in? In what world does Grandpa Joe's life savings amount to 79 cents, cabbage is 5 cents, a high-end chocolate bar is a dollar, but smart phones and tweeting exist? It seems like they wanted to update the setting, but did not account for inflation. These lines need to change immediately in order to convey the proper setting (assuming the creative team knows what that should be). Also, I'm all for bashing Trump in the theater or during award shows, but the lines about the morning tweets and little hands felt very out of place here and seemed like desperate attempts to get an audience response, which they did not. So many scenes from the movie have been cut - everything with Slugworth, the Goose with the Golden eggs, when Charlie and Grandpa Joe take the fizzy lifting drink and fly too close to the fan above - and replaced with subpar material. As stated above, this show was already written for the creative team - why mess with something that is already perfect?
Last night's performance had Ryan Sell as Charlie. He was serviceable at best. Incedentally, the other two Charlie's are Ryan Foust and Jake Ryan Flynn - did you have to be a Ryan in order to be cast? John Rubenstein as Grandpa Joe was fine, but didn't have much to do. Emily Padgett was fine, but had an embarassing "Dead Pa" dance sequence in Act 1...luckily she didn't have too much to do either. The other three grandparents were pretty bad. Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike TV all had the potential to be good, but the material they were given was so poor, that it did not reflect well on them. I must admit that the one positive thing about this production was Jackie Hoffman. She has been hit or miss for me over the past few years, but she does good work here and is funny at times. Still, you wonder how much better she would be with good material as Mike TV's mother. Unfortunately, I did not care for Christian Borle's performance as Wlly Wonka. He is a fantastic actor and I have loved him in everything I've seen him in, but he was not able to rise above this material. I loved him in FALSETTOS and hope he gets a nomination for that show, as CHARLIE deserves to be snubbed across the board.
I know this show has a good advance and I feel for those who have already purchased tickets, but for those fortunate enough to have not yet purchased tickets, please allow this post to be a warning to you. Go see SUNSET or SUNDAY or DOLLY again...hell, even go to AMELIE...but steer clear of CHARLIE. You'll be grateful that your wonderful memories of the book and film won't be soiled.
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I really think the creative team should read this thread, suck up their pride, and start figuring out how to fix this before it's too late... or maybe it is already?
