#CharlieChoc

[brbuttons]

few things have filled us with the need to draw than the day they announced Gareth Snook as the UK Revival Tour Wonka.

[forwearewe]

i’m still tempted to draw Gareth Snook’s Wonka in an adidas tracksuit.

those preview photos will cause cursed images and i’m quite certain the CharlieChoc IG is already like ‘who the hell is this person???’ with how much we share their posts.

... i should post our gareth snook wonka art on main sometime

[ramosksksk]

Charlie on broadway final shows

Does anyone have an audio of the broadway Charlie’s doing their final shows or an audio of closing night??? It’s been a while so I thought I’d ask cause I haven’t seen anything

[danguy96]

I hope you all don’t mind me asking once again, but I was wondering if anyone who collects musical could send another copy of the bootleg of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical with Alex Jennings as Wonka, as well as another copy of the bootleg of the Broadway Retool (the one that isn’t mezzanine-level).

The links I had for both of those up bootlegs ended up getting deleted, and I would appreciate it very much anyone could be able to share a copy of each.

Again, I hope you don’t mind me asking. I hope someone still has a copy of both, considering I’ve noticed a recent crackdown on musical bootlegs, especially from Google.

[roristevens]

All of the so-far announced venues for the CharlieChoc U.S. tour are now offering tickets through the official show website.  The dates thus far are:

Baltimore, MD (France-Merrick Performing Arts Center), January 22-27, 2019

Los Angeles, CA (Pantages Theatre), March 27-April 14, 2019

San Diego, CA (San Diego Civic Theatre), May 14-19, 2019

Seattle, WA (Paramount Theatre), July 31-August 11, 2019

What’s weird about the schedule so far is that the tour’s been announced as starting in September 2018 but no venues have been announced for dates before and including the extra-lucrative Thanksgiving-New Year’s Day period. Of course, word on those will probably be coming out within the next month or two as more theaters/theater series announce their schedules, but it’s curious that it’s mostly the later West Coast venues announcing first. 

[unusual-ly]

A Thing: Willy Wonka is an autistic maladaptive daydreamer fight me

[goalbustersjim]

Hanging out in the @kalwradio studio with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's #WillieWonka and Grandpa Joe! Noah Weisberg & James Young are in #SanFrancisco chatting with #OpenAir’s" #DavidLatulippe about the musical playing now at the @shnsf @goldengatetheatre as a part of @charlieonbroadway series. #publicradio #communityradio #theater #charlieandthechocolatefactory #CharlieChoc #chocolate (at KALW) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwxFRdknOya/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13q5fzs6yi06i

[goalbustersconsulting]

A few photos in the @kalwradio studio with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's #WillieWonka and Grandpa Joe! Noah Weisberg & James Young are in #SanFrancisco chatting with #OpenAir’s" #DavidLatulippe about the musical playing now at the @shnsf @goldengatetheatre as a part of @charlieonbroadway series. #publicradio #communityradio #theater #charlieandthechocolatefactory #CharlieChoc #chocolate (at KALW) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwxEyVLnTIj/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=19lcm98zgn1uf

[mustbebelieved-blog]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at West End Live 2016

[broadway2day-blog]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway Review: B-

I have recently saw the broadway retool of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I have MUCH to say about this production. NOTE: I viewed this production as a video donated to me from a friend so it is probably more epic in person, but I still have quite a few points to make.

The Good:

THE ACTING IS FANTASTIC The cast, especially Christian Borle and Jackie Hoffman, present great acting.

THERE ARE TONS OF FUNNY MOMENTS The crowd will be filled with laughter, I gurantee it. Also, Augustus Gloop is a hoot.

THE CAST ALL HAVE GREAT VOICES AND SKILLS Great voices and great dancers. Trista Dollision (Violet) presents great high pitch voicing, and Emma Pfaeffle (Veruca) is a very elegant dancer.

The Mutual:

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS: Some of the effects are good, such as Mike Teavee’s demise. Others are horrible and cringey, such as Violet’s inflation and Augustus’ downfall.

The Bad:

IT IS CREEPY. The weak children will have nightmares. Veruca is viciously attacked by crazed squirrels who drag her down and rip her head and limbs off. Luckily, Veruca has been replaced by a mannequin, but it is just not enough to make this scene child friendly.

THE SETS ARE MEDIOCRE. The Maze of Deadly Traps room is nothing but a blue box and a door. Mike Teavee gets pummeled by invisible traps, but this empty room is far from funny. A few more props would be nice.

Conclusion:

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the show, but I warn that individuals who do not have the love of the story may wonder why they paid so much money for premium seats for this show.

Also the Oompa Loompa’s wigs are weird. 

[justice-for-jacob-marley]

I know Valentine’s Day is over

But because I love these, I’ll show them to you anyway.

Best wishes from them four.

[nenime]

I made some awful CharlieChoc themed valentines because ??? Idk I think I’m funny

[ramosksksk]

If anyone wants to send me a list of all the changes made to Charlie and the chocolate factory from broadway to the tour that'd be great cause I can't find an audio with the tour cast anywhere

[roristevens]

My thoughts on the Broadway cast album (1) -- spoilers

Now that the CharlieChoc Broadway cast album is on sale via iTunes, I thought I’d give my thoughts on it and compare it to the London cast recording.

Warning -- I will be discussing the plot, etc. in full detail in these posts.

1) Overture -- I wouldn’t count this as an overture -- it’s over in less than a minute.  I hardly remember it now, even.

2) “The Candy Man” -- I can see the thinking behind having this lift from the 1971 movie at the top of the show, but why have Willy Wonka sing it?  The libretto contextualizes it as Wonka seeing it as a duty passed on from one generation to the next, but it really doesn’t fit his character.  One thing that makes the corny lyrics work in the film is that the audience doesn’t know what Willy Wonka’s actually like yet -- that he’s not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows; that’s just what everyone assumes he is.

One of the dumbest mistakes in the retooling of this show for New York is letting the audience in on both Willy Wonka and his scheme at the top.  This isn’t the only adaptation that pulled this -- Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka did too -- but it shows what it assumes about its audience.  It assumes that everybody already knows this story going in and will be bored if the most popular character isn’t onstage immediately.  Maybe that’s true, but I appreciated how the London version not only hewed to the book by keeping him a mystery in Act One, but built up so much mystery around him.  In the book Let’s Put on a Musical!, a theater director who’s handled productions of West Side Story notes that weaker stagings of that show assume everyone knows the story going in and ends up going through the motions.  He said it’s important to produce and perform it “as if it’s being told for the very first time.”  This was one of the great strengths of the original CharlieChoc.

I was unfamiliar with Christian Borle’s work before I heard this album.  He’s a fine singer, but throughout this recording, he’s awfully generic as an actor.  He doesn’t seem to have a “vision” for Willy Wonka the way Douglas Hodge did; his character never fully comes through in the songs -- except when he tries to be “funny”, whereupon he overplays the material.  There’s a difference between acting funny and being funny, and this is a problem throughout this recording.

3) “Willy Wonka!  Willy Wonka!”  This is Charlie’s introductory song, replacing “Almost Nearly Perfect" and “The Amazing Tale of Mr. Willy Wonka” from London because it also doubles as the Wonka backstory number, Charlie relating it to a candy shop owner who is actually Willy Wonka in disguise.  If the title sounds familiar, it’s a whole waltz-time (I think) song built around that little fanfare that popped up in London, mostly in the background but also as a chorale at the top of “It Must Be Believed to Be Seen”.

This isn’t too bad a substitute, but it’s not nearly as grand or fun as “Amazing Tale”, which not only got a ton of exposition out of the way but effectively foreshadowed the dark fates of the bratty kids with the Prince Pondicherry story and thoroughly established Charlie’s loving relationship with his grandparents and their distinct personalities.   

It’s odd that the first song for Charlie is more about Wonka than him, especially coming right after “The Candy Man”.  It doesn’t even seem sure about what Charlie actually thinks of Wonka and his chocolate.  According to him, Wonka became a has-been after he vanished from the public eye, and Wonka Bars are only bought by “old people” -- but despite all the disparaging talk he claims to adore them anyway.  (This also introduces a plot hole at least one reviewer’s pointed out elsewhere -- if he’s a has-been, why does everyone go wild when the Golden Ticket contest is announced?)

[unusual-ly]

@new-berlinwall DUDE I LOVE IT I saw the West End version last year and then the Broadway version when I went to New York a month ago. I have to admit, I still prefer the West End version but seeing Christian Borle's Wonka was An Experience ok that man is a gift to the world and I'm totally not bitter that he didn't sing Simply Second Nature which is my life

[goalbustersconsulting]

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Flying around the @kalwradio studio with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's #WillieWonka and Grandpa Joe! Noah Weisberg & James Young are in #SanFrancisco chatting with #OpenAir’s" #DavidLatulippe about the musical playing now at the @shnsf @goldengatetheatre as a part of @charlieonbroadway series. #publicradio #communityradio #theater #charlieandthechocolatefactory #CharlieChoc #chocolate (at KALW) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwutGHan1oe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w1uphqdt40a6