Wonka on the Fringe: musical parody of 'Willy’s Chocolate Experience' reviewed

Willy’s Candy Spectacular is a fun sugar rush but not quite a golden ticket

Willy's Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody | Stamos

MUSICALS AND OPERA

Willy’s Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody ★★★

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 26 August

CHILDREN’S SHOWS

Pure Imagination – A Willy Wonka Parody and Comedy Magic Show ★

Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88) until 18 August

There’s lashings of E number energy in this explosive metatheatrical musical comedy about the implosive Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow, which became an online sensation after a meme of ‘sad oompa loompa’ Kirsty Patterson went viral. Now she’s here at the Fringe, playing herself along with a load of other Kirsty Pattersons playing her, along with, rather thrillingly, Julie Dawn-Cole, the original Veruca Salt from the 1971 film, and a full cast of musical theatre stars presumably on sabbatical from the roles of varying quality on offer elsewhere. 

The music’s loud, the performances louder, and everyone’s clearly had their orangeade. It veers between being infectious and exhausting, but within the neon wrapping is some interesting commentary on the endless knock-off reproductions of classic children’s stories, their empty commercialisation, and the way that cultural phenomena that is so-bad-it’s-good can take on a life of its own. 

As a rough-and-ready response to a real-life story, it has the kind of bonhomie, off-the-cuff enthusiasm that the Fringe is famed for, even if it’s intriguing themes and theatrical style eventually dissolve into something less polished than a gobstopper. Some of the singing is excellent, but like jellybeans, the chain of poppy numbers soon starts to feel too similar. “The best show is the worst show,” goes the concluding number. This might not be that, but it’s a good attempt. 

In Pure Imagination – A Willy Wonka Parody and Comedy Magic Show things are also going wrong, but not for the right reasons. Magician Andy Peters says that he’s playing a character inspired by Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka, but largely seems to be simply himself in a costume, carrying out magic tricks that sometimes work and sometimes don’t with his ‘assistants’, the kids from the audience who volunteer. 

First, they’re encouraged to drink bubbles by ‘catching’ them in their mouths. A girl says she’d prefer to use her hands to catch them instead. This causes him to half her points. Later, another girl is given a sharp knife to cut open a lemon and appears to accidently stab him. Then a group of kids are tied up in an ‘escape’ trick that doesn’t work, in which Andy encourages a volunteer Dad to join him in pulling on a rope that repeatedly doesn’t unravel as intended and the children clearly find painful. 

Meanwhile, two guys in black film the whole thing, including close-ups. Don’t go on stage if you don’t want to be filmed, Andy says, in an opt out rather than opt in system. And, with one of the cameras seemingly firmly fixated on the audience, it doesn’t seem like staying put saves you either. While the kids seem to be having a good time, and the parents appear relatively relaxed, the show’s success largely comes from tapping into the appeal of the original Roald Dahl story rather than the quality of the magic.